I Hate to Kill You (I Hate to Die)
by inkheart9459
Summary: Life as a spy infiltrating the CIA is rather boring for Regina Mills. She misses the excitement of being in the field and doing something, that is until Emma White walks in. Emma just hopes that she can find mole at the CIA quickly and get back out to where they'll send her next, being in the US again has too many memories. It seems like an easy job until Regina Mills struts in.
1. 1: Government Efficiency

Hello there, some things to know and tell about this story, it was written for the Swan Queen Big Bang: Bangin' All Summer. As such there's some really awesome art over on Archive of Our Own for this story by the wonderful Lucy_Riot. Seriously, it's awesome, go look and be in awe. It's under the same title as the story. Past that, well, this is a spy AU, so there's a bit of violence in here as well as major character death. If those aren't your things then this isn't the story for you. If it is, enjoy everyone.

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><p>Regina strode through the atrium like she owned it, heels clicking out a rhythm on the marble below her. She crossed the logo of the Central Intelligence Agency like she did every day. She repressed a sneer like she did every day. They were all idiots. She walked through security, nodding at the guards, sweeping her eyes quickly over the guns at their side. SIG-Sauer P228s, not very high powered, but enough to get the job done, surely. Well, enough to get the job done if the job was anyone but her. But that was neither here nor there. Her orders were clear.<p>

She cleared security easily and walked to the bank of elevators. She hit the up button and waited around. A couple of her coworkers sent her cordial good mornings, but other than that no one spoke to her. That was how she liked it. That was how it was safe.

The elevator came and she took it to the third floor. She walked to her little cubicle in the corner of the large room and sat down. There was already a pile of files sitting on her key board. She resisted the urge to sigh. This was not what she was trained for.

Regina pulled the files towards her and opened them up. A slew of domestic information covered the page. She hated the domestic files the most. Inane things mostly, the residents of this heinous country were entirely too stupid to plan something of note. Yet, she as a low level CIA analyst had to go through everything just to make sure. And if information sometimes got lost about a possible threat…well no one was ever the wiser.

She read everything quickly. Nothing stuck out at her. Just the normal chatter that amounted to nothing. She typed up her report quickly enough, put the files in her outbox, and sent the report to her superior. She stood up and stretched and walked over to the water cooler, grabbing a cup and filling it, leaning against the wall, drinking absently as she listened to conversations around her. Someone was having an affair. Another girl thought that the information she was sorting through was the end of the world waiting to happen. Some man was whispering to his superior about a group planning an attack on a general in one of the South American countries. Regina filed that tidbit away for later. There were certain people who would want to know their cover could possibly be blown.

She finished her cup of water and went back to her desk. The files she'd sorted through were already gone replaced by a new stack. She really despised this job with a burning passion. She would give anything to go back and time to fix the mistake that had landed her here. One little mistake and she had ended up in this hellhole. There was a reason that people like her didn't trust a single soul, but the girl…well she was on the brink of death and she seemed safe enough. She wasn't heartless, she had tried to save her. She was an innocent in all of this. Yet it had cost her almost everything.

She grabbed another file and set to reading once more. A few files later the floor's supervisor yelled for attention. It took several long moments but everyone fell silent and rolled out of their cubicles to see what the ruckus was about. Regina stood and leaned lightly against her cubicle's flimsy walls.

The man cleared his throat. "Thank you. So, as most of you that have worked here for a while know, the government loves to increase efficiency. Starting today a group will be interviewing you all about your job practices and watching you work in order to make suggestions about how we can work that much better."

Everyone on the floor groaned loudly.

"Now I know this isn't out favorite thing, but just be polite and cooperative and they'll be out of here in no time. We're already quite the efficient group so I can't imagine that they'll have much to say about any of us. The group should start after lunch sometime, I just wanted to give you a heads up." The man nodded and stepped back.

Everyone on the floor erupted, talking to their neighbors loudly. Regina sunk down into her seat again. Something about this didn't sit well with her. Her instincts were almost always right when it came to potentially dangerous situations for her. She would just have to extra careful around this group of efficiency consultants. Her cover was sound, after all it had gotten her into one of the most secure buildings in the world, albeit in a very low level job with low level clearance, but it was enough. She played this right and she would be fine.

Regina sat with a particularly dense file in front of her when another, much more feminine voice called for their attention. Regina stood, throwing the remains of her lunch away. Her mouth went slightly dry at the sight of a blonde woman with piercing green eyes standing exactly where the floor supervisor had stood a few hours before. The corners of Regina's mouth turned up. Well, the government surely had predictable hiring practices.

"Hi guys, I'm Emma White. I'm the efficiency consultant that will be around for the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to working with all of you in the future. I hope we'll get along just great. Also, these are two assistants Scarlet," A woman with a bright red streak through her dark brown hair waved. "and Mary Margret." A demure woman in a matronly looking sweater and dress smiled at them. "They'll be helping conduct all the interviews, but if you believe that there are any problems, though I don't see anything going wrong, always feel free to come directly to me. So, just continue on with your day. When we need to see you we'll come and get you and don't be surprised to find us hovering around. Thank you very much." Emma smiled.

Everyone went back to work slowly, watching the group of new comers warily.

Emma took a deep breath. It smelled exactly as she remembered it did in Langley though it had been years since she had been back here. The burning sun of the Middle East and the biting cold of a Russian winter were more familiar to her now than her own home country's mild climate. But this was the life she had gladly signed up for years ago. Moving around came with the territory.

They needed an unknown face for this assignment, someone who didn't come and go from Langley but once in a blue moon. Emma was one of the few that fit that criteria and she was the best out of all of them. Not that she wasn't happy to not be holed up a tiny little shack in the middle of the Russian tundra in hopes of coming across the supposedly vital information that her country needed, but it was a tad disorienting. Being surrounded by almost everyone speaking English sounded _wrong_. But she was adaptable, she had to be. It wouldn't phase her for long.

Her team trailed behind her. She didn't know how she felt about this whole working in a team thing either. People in her profession were lone wolfs. All three of them had given the other two a thorough once over and then another one just to be sure when they had met up a few days ago. They had deemed each other acceptable for the time being, but Emma knew she had gotten more than a few glares from behind her back from the red streaked one. Probably thought she should be in charge. Emma fought to not to roll her eyes at that. Of course she thought she should be alpha bitch. If this mission wasn't so big she would have asked to work alone. But there were all of the employees of Langley to go through, so this arrangement would have to do.

Emma pressed the up button and waited as her two companions swept in behind her. It was after lunch. She found that people got sloppier in the afternoon when fatigue started to hit. If they were going to catch whoever was on the inside they would need every little thing on their side. To get into Langley without tripping an alarm they had to be good. Emma thought of the list of others that she knew that could pull it off, and there were only a handful. She'd already gone through all of the pictures of the employees and they weren't anywhere, though. This was an unknown quantity. Which either meant they were new to the game, or they were so damn good that no one even knew they were in the game period. This was going to be a fucking long mission.

The elevator doors opened and she stepped through. The floor spread out before her, crowded with cubicles. A slight frown tugged at her face. There were a lot of places to hide within a warren like this. Not that there weren't cameras everywhere, but Emma liked to have an eye on everyone and everything. It had kept her alive more than a few times. She could deal with this. Most of these people couldn't kill anyone with a gun at point blank range. It would be fine. For now. As long as she picked out the enemy before they picked her out.

She walked up to the floor supervisor and chatted a few minutes. Twitchy man, very nervous, but friendly. His accent wasn't affected, but natural. He read at face value to be exactly as he appeared, a middle management flunky of the CIA. She'd do a more thorough reading later.

When she called for the entire floor's attention a few minutes later she surveyed the faces. The words that were coming out of her mouth were well rehearsed, so much that they flowed off her tongue without thought. It left her free to scan the faces in front of her.

Breath left her as she locked eyes with a brown haired, brown eyed woman of obvious Latina descent. God, talk about her type. It had been quite a while since she'd had a bed warmer for a night. But that was beside the point. Her eyes wandered on.

Everyone here looked like low level analysts. Then again, whoever was here had to blend in in order to stay here unobserved. This floor had been selected first for the fact that it would be one of the easiest to fit in on and had the most information flowing through it. It may not be top secret information, but if they were good enough that wouldn't matter. Once they had access to the CIA they could access whatever they needed with relative ease.

With her speech over she started to pace the rows of cubicles, looking for anything particularly odd. Which was hard considering everyone seemed to be acting weird. She sighed. Why had the government made her cover an efficiency consultant? It was the least covert thing she could think of. These people weren't going to trust her easily, not when she had the power to have them fired. Sometimes government didn't make sense at all.

She found herself drifting past the brunette's cubicle. The woman was already hard at work with a stack of files in front of her, reading intently. Her heart skipped a beat at the reading glasses perched on her nose. They were absolutely adorable. Emma glanced over at the other two agents. They were pacing just as she was, distracted. Perhaps she would take this interview personally when the time came. And maybe she would make it the first interview she did. The faster she cleared the woman the faster she wouldn't feel guilty about the skipping her heart did every time she saw an attractive woman. As many women as she had seen and still the woman sitting the cubicle had to rate in the top ten. Perhaps when she was clear she could get the woman to go out with her for a night. Then she could get her out of her head and have a clear head to finish the job and get her out of the country again and onto something a little more exciting.

Yes, that sounded like a good idea. Then again, good idea for her was relative. It certainly wasn't going to get her killed, but that was probably about it. Emma smiled and kept walking.


	2. 2: Arousing Suspicion

Regina had made it through the day without arousing any suspicion. It wasn't that hard considering all she had to do was sit there and read a few files. It was all just psychological really. She knew it was, but it never did seem to get easier, to quash that instinctual panic.

She sighed and let herself into her apartment. The white walls greeted her as they always did, silently. The sound of paws on a floor made her smile slightly. A ball of fur wrapped around her feet and purred up at her. Regina bent and petted the tabby's head. The cat wasn't normally her style, but this was a long term assignment and it had showed up outside her window night after night and when she'd left milk out for it one winter's night it never left. She couldn't say she regretted it. A furry companion was better than none at all. Still, she never named it so she couldn't get _too_ attached.

The cat ran for the kitchen knowing that dinner was coming up next. Regina let out a little laugh and slipped out of her heels, putting them on the shoe rack by the door and padding down the hall in her stocking feet. She opened a can of cat food and threw it in the cat's bowl while her lap top was booting up. The cat meowed its thanks before digging in heartily.

Regina sat back and waited for the boot sequence to complete. The screen turned a lighter shade of black indicating that it was ready. She stepped forward.

"Operative Evil Queen reporting."

The computer took the command and whirred to life, loading the start screen. Regina quickly clicked on the link to the obscure drop box she was to use to inform her handler of anything of importance. She typed in the bit about the U.S. hearing chatter of an attack on a general and clicked send. She shut down the lap top just as her cat jumped up on the counter beside the device.

"Shoo, you, you know you're not supposed to be up here."

The cat glared at her but complied, choosing to wrap around her ankles yet again and impede her progress over to the fridge. She opened the white appliance and looked inside. It was stocked with all the healthy food she could ever want, but nothing seemed appealing to her tonight. What she really wanted was home cooked food. Her father had made the best tamales when she was girl. Her mouth watered at the thought. But the version she could get here weren't even worth the effort of going out. They were always a disappointment. She could never make them right either. There was just something about being in her home country that made them…right that couldn't be captured in a small apartment in Virginia.

She sighed and grabbed the least offensive thing her fridge had to offer her and set about preparing a kind of curry she had come across in Ethiopia. Her kitchen filled with the smell of spices as it cooked and she breathed in deeply. She could almost feel the sun beating down on her as she walked down the street crowded by vendors. She would be forever glad she had managed to get the vendor of that little curry cart to tell her how she made her wares. It had just the right level of spice for Regina's taste. It wasn't truly home cooked food, but it would do.

She settled in front of her T.V. with a plate of curry and rice and flicked through the channels. Nothing was interesting tonight, not like it ever was. She didn't know why she even paid for cable. She flicked moved to turn off the device, but stopped her hand. The noise was nice if nothing else. Her brain was far too busy for any other form of entertainment.

The cat curled up in her lap after she'd set her empty plate aside. She petted him absently as she watched something called bridezillas and fought not to roll her eyes at the snippets her brain did manage to understand. Her mind kept jumping back to green eyes and blonde hair. The woman had set something off within her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but here she was head in the clouds, craving food from home, acting like she hadn't since she'd started this job years ago. People in her profession couldn't act like this. It got them killed.

She couldn't entertain thoughts of this blonde woman. Even if she was extremely attractive, that didn't matter. Her presence at the CIA complicated things for her. And complications could never work out well. She just needed a little personal time with the contents of her nightstand drawer and all thoughts of attractive women with sea green eyes would be a thing of the past.

Regina nudged the cat off of her lap, much to his indignation. She got up, grabbed her plate and cleaned it off absently. Yes. That's what she would do. There was no room in her life for blonde curls that reminded her of the sun shining down on her childhood home. She didn't even know the woman, how could she wax romantic about someone she didn't even know? Her hormones were just out of control and she knew very well how to fix that problem.

She finished cleaning up her plate and putting away the left overs before slipping into her bed room. She stripped down and climbed into bed. Her hand wandered over to her night stand and opened the drawer, drawing out the lipstick vibrator she kept within. She left it on the bedspread beside her and drew her hands up to her chest. She let out a deep breath and let her hands start to massage the supple flesh under them. Her eyes fluttered closed at the sensations. It had been quite a while since she last indulged herself. Work had gotten in the way. She let out a soft moan as her fingers ghosted across her rapidly hardening nipples. Her body was already humming. Oh, she was going to go off so quickly.

A hand slipped up to caress the sensitive skin where her neck met her shoulder while the other hand started to tweak her nipples. She arched into the contact and let out another little moan. The hand at her neck slid down her body slowly. She savored the feeling of skin on skin. A louder moan left her when her fingers found their destination. She was more ready than she should be after such a short time, but that didn't matter. Her fingers set to work stroking lightly over her hardened and slick flesh. Hard and fast strokes built her up further and further but she knew she needed just a little more to send her over. She reached out and grabbed her vibrator and switched it on quickly. Her body arched off the bed as she pressed it to her clit. A loud moan ripped itself from her throat. She pressed it a little further into her and she came hard.

When green eyes flashed up behind her eyelids as her body almost left the bed completely with the force of her orgasm she knew she was doomed.

Emma sat at the elevator, smiling at the first few people straggling into the office. They looked drug out. If she hadn't been there since four in the morning bugging every single one of their computers she might have some sympathy. After all it was Friday and the end of the week was the hardest. But she _had_ been fixing bug onto their keyboards and hard drives at ungodly hours of the morning, so the sympathy she might have had was gone.

She needed to know every single keystroke these people made and every single file that came in and out of their cubicles. The only way to do that was to plant bug inside the computers. If they were good they could erase the worst of their tracks even inside the most secure building on the planet. But they couldn't fool her bug. If the bugs caught something that she could use to catch the bastard that was leaking information then it would be a job well done and well worth the three a.m. wake up call this morning.

Emma perked up a little bit as the brunette walked off the elevator. She was one of the first people there. Emma wasn't sure why, but it didn't surprise her that she was so early. It just seemed like something she would do. Emma scowled. She didn't know this woman, how could she make such judgments. Things like that could get her killed.

What did surprise her, though, was the glare the woman sent her way. She sat back a little. Damn, the woman could kill with her eyes if she wanted to, she was sure. She didn't know what the hell she'd done to deserve it though. Emma hadn't even said hello to the woman yesterday. Maybe she'd caught her checking her out one of the few times, ok many times, she'd walked by her cubicle yesterday. She sighed. She wasn't exactly one for subtlety. At least in dating. She saved all of that for her job. And if she wanted to sleep with a woman, well, she usually didn't have much time to dilly dally around and wait for subtle flirtation to work.

Fuck. She had really been looking forward to clearing the woman of being the mole and then fucking her brains out. She sighed. Wouldn't be the first disappointment she'd endured, wouldn't be the last either.

She went back to watching everyone walk in. They were flowing in in a slightly heavier stream now that nine o'clock was rapidly nearing. She watched their morning routines carefully. What a person did to get comfortable told a lot about them. Nothing struck her as immediately suspicious, but then again she had only been here a day. It took a few days to get the rhythms of others down.

Emma was finally realizing that maybe sending her here as an efficiency consultant wasn't such a bad idea after all. When watching people closely it was easy to arouse suspicion, not like she couldn't do it, but that took more time than she knew they had. In a position like this she was free to watch as much as she wanted and not only would it not arouse suspicion, it was expected. Still a little too high profile for her liking, but she could at least see the logic now.

Scarlet and Mary Margret were already starting to pull people out for interviews. She heard the workers quickly agree to the interviews before trailing off behind the two women towards one of the two rooms that they'd commandeered for such purposes.

The last few people trickled in and Emma stood up after taking note of the people. Lateness could mean they had been somewhere before coming to work or it could just mean that they'd had a hard time detaching themselves from their pillows, but it was best to have their faces in mind just in case. Information was power here.

Emma set off to patrolling the floor, looking at people all plugging away at their computers or sorting through files. More than a few people seemed slow to start this morning and she sent more than a few appraising looks their way. Best to play the part as much as she knew how. There weren't exactly efficiency consultants in her line of work. If you weren't efficient you got shot and that was the end of that. She wondered how some of these people would fare one day in her life and then started to laugh quietly for a few seconds. Some of them wouldn't even make it ten minutes, less depending on the day.

She found herself drifting towards the brunette more than once, but stopped herself. She couldn't go there. Obviously the woman wasn't interested, not with a glare like that going on. So she kept herself to her regular office circuit and if she was a little extra vigilant walking down the woman's row of cubicles, then so be it.

Scarlet and Mary Margret came back from their first round of interviews and handed her their notes. She read through them absently. One was obviously stealing money from one of the funds he was supposed to be reporting on. The other was just a working mother who was good at her job. She'd report the man, but it definitely was not what they were looking for. They'd keep an eye on everyone of course, but it looked as if they could cross two people off of their list for now.

Around lunch she was making her way down the brunette's row of cubicles when the brunette herself stepped out of her cubicle without looking and almost ran smack into Emma. Emma stumbled back a tad bit but caught herself. Woman had a solid body even if it didn't look like it. She flicked her eyes up and down her form again, appraising. She wondered absently just what the woman could do with that body.

She shook her head. Not going to go there, Emma. Not interested. Get it together.

"Oh sorry," Emma said, looking into dark brown eyes.

The brunette's startled expression quickly morphed into the glare that she had seen earlier. "I'd ask you to please watch where you're going next time, Miss White."

Emma cocked her head to the side. "Interesting thing to say to someone who has the power to fire me."

"You only have the power to _recommend _to fire me. There is a great difference between the two."

"Yeah, but they're going to take all of my recommendations and act on them. That's how this gig works."

The brunette snorted. "Please, they won't fire me. I'm the one on this floor with the highest productivity. Even the floor supervisor does not get as much done as I do in a day. They won't fire me."

"If you're the most productive here then why aren't you more than an analyst peon?"

"Because I'm not white and male." The brunette just looked at her and begged her to say it wasn't true.

"That can't be the only reason. Your attitude would be one reason I could think of not to put you in a position of power."

The woman snorted. "Please, if I was a man it would be seen as a go getter attitude and that I wouldn't let anyone get in my way. Of course because I'm a woman I'm just called a bitch."

Emma was momentarily speechless. She did have a point. Before she could come up with a witty comeback the woman was continuing.

"No matter what, Miss White, business, even government business, is sexist and racist. You would have a better chance of moving up in this organization than I ever will. I have to work three times as hard as everyone else around here to be thought of as an asset instead of just your ordinary everyday worker bee. I'll thank you not to take what little progress I have made away from me."

The woman turned on her heel and stalked away. Emma watched her all the way to the water cooler, eyes trailing down to the woman's toned ass every few seconds before she managed to drag them up to a more decent place. She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but damn if she wasn't slightly turned on. A feminist CIA analyst. Who would have thought. She wondered what the woman would have thought of her real position within the organization. She turned away with a smile on her face, imagining just what the woman's face would look like when she told her. The images were enough to get her through her hellaciously long day and all the way home with ease.


	3. 3: Blood on the Mat

Regina huffed angrily, watching the woman strut around the floor like some sort of preening peacock. She obviously was one of those consultants that thought she was better than all of the workers just because she thought she some modicum of power over them. Peon analyst. She snorted. If only the woman actually knew the truth. She could kill her before she could even scream for help. She was no damn peon.

She flew through the files on her desk, using her anger to guide her work. The files were more domestic files, but it didn't matter. Even if this wasn't her real job she was damn good at it and she was going to shove it in that blonde idiot's face.

Regina got through more files that day than she ever had before and she knew that she hadn't missed a single word in any of those files even though she had sped through them. Anger made her hyper vigilant, always had. It was one of things that made her so damn good at her real job.

She practically ran from work she walked out of the building so fast, heels clacking on the marble in a staccato rhythm. She was extremely tense again and she needed to work it out. She wasn't about to go home again and try the same method as the night before. No, that would be like letting the blonde idiot win somehow. She took a deep breath as she got into her car and decided immediately what she was going to do. She turned her car towards the gym she frequented.

The space was clean and mostly empty. There were only a few people lifting weights and a few more running on the treadmills. She went to the locker rooms flicked open her locker and changed quickly. Regina taped up her hand expertly and exited back to the gym floor once again. She looked over the patrons again. Anyone of them would do.

She walked towards the big space of open mats in the corner of the gym and waited. A man stopped his weight lifting and walked over, smiling. He motioned to the mats and lifted an eyebrow. Regina nodded and stepped up on the mats.

This corner of the gym was exactly why she had joined this gym out of all the ones in the area. It was frequented by people experienced in hand to hand combat. And everyone was almost always waiting for a fight. Someone approached the mats and whoever wanted to challenge them could. Fighting went on for as long as the people sparring wanted. It had been a godsend to Regina when she'd been forced here. Spars with pansies in other gyms weren't enough for her. She needed to keep her skills up. A few halfhearted jabs weren't going to do that.

"How far you wanna go?" The man asked stepping up across from her.

"Blood on the mat."

"Lady needs to blow off some steam."

Regina leveled her eyes at him. He cringed back just a little at her look.

"You have no idea."

"Well then, shall we?"

Regina was lunging forward in the next second. The man responded admirably. He almost blocked Regina's punch. Almost. She landed a hard punch to his solar plexus. He doubled over gasping for breath. Regina didn't let up, though. She grabbed his back and drove her knee up into his stomach. The gasps turned into strangled wheezes.

Regina's muscles started to unclench just the tiniest bit. She pushed the man down on the floor and pinned him down, his arms under her legs and most of her weight resting on his chest. She almost felt a little bad for him gasping like a fish under her.

She reared back to deal the final punch, sure that it would leave him spitting out blood and thus ending the match. He twisted at the last second, though, and managed to dislodge her from his chest. Regina scrambled up before he could pin her to the ground. She looked him over again. Well, perhaps he wasn't quite as hopeless as she had thought. Perhaps she'd got the jump on him.

He sized her up again, taking in her small form differently. He may not have taken this seriously before but it seemed like he was going to now. Good. That's what Regina needed. Beating him easily would have released only part of the tension she was feeling. A real fight and all of the frustration from that idiot Miss White would be gone and maybe this time actually stay gone.

The man lunged forward while she was seemingly slightly distracted. Regina saw the move coming even if she had been half in her head thinking about the blonde idiot. She stepped out of the way and swung her leg up, kicking the man squarely in the ass. He just managed not to fall on his face, but Regina took advantage of his loss of balance to sweep him off his feet.

He shot up this time before she could pin him. He was a quick learner it seemed. Regina smiled and darted forward. She got in so close she could feel him breathing and brought her elbow up to his face. He managed to pull his nose out of the way and Regina's elbow hit his jaw. She reveled in the grunt of pain he released. This was what she had trained for her whole life. The hand to hand combat lessons from the time she could walk had drilled this into her, the need to win, the desperate, primal need to take her opponent down so she could live another day. Her childhood had not been a bright one, but by god was this a part that she had always enjoyed, the thrill of the chase and the conquering of prey.

Regina darted back again out of his range. Well. He would be expecting her to try to knock him down and pin him now. If he was good he'd see the close attacks coming again too. What to do now?

He took her by surprise, stepping into her range again. Her fist flew out to take advantage of a rather stupid move, but his fist hit first. She hadn't even seen it coming. Regina refused to let out a grunt of pain as her head snapped to the side. He'd managed to catch the side of her face. Nothing that would bleed but she bet that the side of her eye would be bruised if the whole thing wasn't black by morning. That would be fun to explain at work, but then again most people knew not to ask questions of her other than strictly work based questions.

She saw red. Oh, he'd managed to hit her. It had been quite a while since anyone who wasn't fighting her all out to kill her had managed that. It had been a while since anyone had hit her period. After that knife wound in Kosovo she'd trained twice as hard and had become practically untouchable.

She stepped back just enough to be out of his reach. The next second her leg came up. She kicked almost straight up and her foot landed just under his chin. He went down like a ten pound sack of potatoes. He groaned loudly from the mat and spit out a mouth full of blood. The man blinked for a few seconds before sitting up.

"You're a firecracker." He looked up and down again, this time much different than the sizing up he'd been doing during the fight. "Want to get a drink after this?"

Regina looked him up and down in the same way. He was handsome enough. The tension from the tiff with Miss White was gone now that her opponent had thrown in the towel, but a little more tension relief couldn't hurt. It wasn't like she didn't have the time. It was Friday after all. She smiled at the man.

"That sounds like a lovely idea." She offered a hand up to the man who took it and pulled himself to his feet.

"Meet back out here after we're done changing?" he asked smiling back at her.

She laid a hand on his arm. "Sounds like a plan."

They walked each other to the locker rooms and went inside to clean up.


	4. 4: Weak in the Knees

The weekend had dragged absolute ass for Emma. It seemed that every other thought trailed back to the brunette woman. She had even done a little research in the database of CIA employees and found the woman's name and file. Regina Mills. Emma had snorted at that, Regina certainly fit the woman. She acted like a queen in every way even though she had no kingdom to rule. Her file also confirmed exactly what the woman had snapped at her on Friday. She really was the most productive and thorough worker on the floor, supervisor included. Yet there were no suggestions for promotion in her file and Emma knew that people who had been there less time than the woman had climbed higher in the ranks. Damn, she really did hate having her ass handed to her, but it seemed like she had.

Emma shut her lap top. Here it was Monday morning and she was looking at her file yet again. Jesus. She did not quite understand what her body didn't understand about the other woman not being interested, but it refused to listen. Her mind had craved and fantasized about the other woman even as she tried to tamp down on the urge. In a fit of weakness she may have even let her hand slip into her pj pants. God, had that been an orgasm to remember.

And now here she was waiting for the woman to walk off the elevator , sitting on the edge of her seat. She hadn't had it this bad since high school and that one chemistry teacher that had double D boobs and a tendency to wear low cut shirts. She'd gotten an A in chemistry that year with all the extra help sessions she'd gone to. Which had paid off in the long run, she actually did need to know chemistry on a fairly regular basis. Building bombs out of the things around her had come in handy one more than one occasion. She wondered what Miss Marcello would think of that.

Emma perked up, recognizing the familiar stride pattern of Regina. The woman practically strutted off the elevator and sent the most condescending smirk that she possibly could Emma's way. Her eyes narrowed. She looked like the cat that caught the canary. What the hell had she done over the weekend to make her so damn self-satisfied?

"Good morning, Miss White," Regina tossed over her shoulder as she walked to her cubicle and sat down.

Ok. Now that was just taunting. There was totally no mistaking it now. Before it could have just been taken as Regina having a good day, but this was totally about her, Emma was damn sure of it. For fuck's sake all she had done was insinuate the woman was lying when she said she was the most productive on the floor, or at least exaggerating. It wasn't like she'd stolen her boyfriend or murdered her kitten or anything.

And that smirk meant that she had done something that she felt got back at her for what she did, but what the hell could that have been? It wasn't like the woman could get _her_ fired. Nothing about this situation made any damn sense. But fuck if she wasn't going to get to the bottom of it and damn quickly too.

Emma got up and walked over to Scarlet. "Who are you interviewing today?"

Scarlet gestured at the row of cubicles before Regina's. "Everyone in that line."

"Mary Margret have the one before or after?"

"Before. Why?"

"I'll take the one after today."

"You sure? We don't have a room and who's supposed to watch the floor when Mary Margret and I are in interviews?" Scarlet tugged down her shorter than business professional skirt just a little.

"I'm sure I can convince one of the guys with an office to give it up for the day with a little eyelash batting. And as for the floor, everything is being caught on camera and the stuff in their computer. They'll be fine for a day."

"You've got your eye on someone?"

Emma managed to keep a straight face. "Yes." It wasn't technically a lie. She did have her eye on someone. Just not as the mole. She needed to get this woman off her damn mind before she could find the damn mole. If this was any country besides her own she might think of kidnapping the woman and hiding her away until she got her job done just so she wouldn't be distracted. But this wasn't a third world country where a kidnapped woman would be shrugged off. She'd have to get the woman off her mind in a much more subtle way.

"Who?" Scarlet asked.

Emma gestured at a man three cubicles behind Regina. He'd come in late every single day so far, got hardly any work done, and only seemed interested in listening to other's conversations. He was a good a candidate as any now that she was really thinking about it. He didn't exactly scream the type, but then again did any of them ever? The best she'd ever met was a 75 year old grandma who'd kicked her ass in a fight and gotten away with the information she'd taken three months to get her hands on. She'd looked at the woman every day for those three months as she'd grabbed her coffee at a hole in the wall shop across from the building she'd watched all those months. It had been absolute hell to track down that woman and then actually manage to get the information back. She probably should feel bad for having left the old woman on the floor in her own blood, but her leg still hurt every fucking time it rained at the point where she'd broken it, so she didn't feel remorse at all. It was a part of their reality after all.

Scarlet nodded. "I've seen him around. Quite the little eavesdropper, that one. Good luck."

She walked off towards the beginning of the row she was going to interview and pulled out a middle aged balding man, leading him towards the room she'd been using for interviews.

Emma herself walked towards one of the corner offices of the floor. She knocked on the door and let herself in. A man was on the phone and he signaled for her to wait a minute. Emma had seen him around, but not much. He walked in and went straight to his office and stayed there until closing time.

He finished up his phone call and looked up at Emma. "What can I do to help you?" He smiled warmly, if a little shyly.

"Well, I'm Emma White from the group of efficiency consultants that's been assessing your floor. It seems we're getting just a little behind on staff interviews. I know we've already commandeered two rooms on this floor for interviews, but I was hoping that I could take over your office for that day so we could keep on schedule? It would be terribly ironic for the efficiency consultants to be anything but efficient." She put on her very best puppy dog eyes and batted her eyelashes just so. It was a look that had gotten her what little she'd managed to have as a child. She knew it was damn effective if it could get foster parents to cough up any amount of money.

"Well, I do have a good deal of business to do on the Hill in the next few days. If I move it all to today I won't be needing my office."

Emma perked up just enough. "Really?" she asked letting hope leak into her voice.

"I suppose. Just give me a while to set everything up and I'll be out of your hair for the day."

Emma stepped forward. "Oh, thank you so much. You're too kind."

"It's nothing." The man smiled now, much more confident. "I'll find you when I'm on my way out."

She stepped back once more towards the door. "That sounds great. Thank you again. You're a life saver."

Emma walked back out on the floor and started to make her rounds once more while she waited. She went over what she would say to Regina, how she would ferret the information she wanted out of her without letting the other woman know just what she was getting at. She only needed the barest hint of information really. She was good at connecting the dots in the right way even without all of the dots in place. Emma knew that the brunette woman would see through anything too straightforward. She had proved herself to be quite intelligent both in work and in the conversation that they'd had on Friday. Emma formed a list of questions quickly to add to the ones that Scarlet and Mary Margret were already asking the workers. They were designed to ferret out the mole easily, but she had her own mission today on top of it. It was slowly killing her just exactly what had Regina so freaking smug. It irritated her to no end.

And turned her on. But that was _so_ beside the point.

The man whose office she was stealing for the day came and got her an hour later. She thanked him again before sending him off. She stood for just a second after that and debated. Did she want Regina to be her first interview or last? Last, she decided quickly. She wanted as much time as possible and she could only really do that if Regina was the last and she had no one else to get to. She went to go grab the first person at the beginning of the row.

The first three people she interviewed were normal people. She was sure the first guy couldn't even understand half the things she was saying, either he wasn't listening or was just plain idiotic. His productivity numbers matched the intelligence level he was displaying so she really didn't question it. When he walked out of the office and complemented her ass her immediate conclusion was that he was meat head who looked good in a suit. The other two were unremarkable in their cookie cutter good citizenship, 2.5 children, middle class-ness. None of them pinged her inner radar as potential moles.

When she walked out to get the fourth person to interview her eyes fell on Regina Mills. She was walking to the water cooler, something Emma had noticed she did at least twice a day. Emma stood back and watched her for a few seconds. She had four more interviews before she got to the woman today. The woman took a step forward and her knees gave out just slightly. Emma's eyes narrowed. Regina managed to keep herself from hitting the ground and straightened up. A pleased smile and a far off look made its way onto the Latina woman's face along with just the smallest pink tinge to her cheeks.

Emma's fist clenched at her sides as she put two and two together. Well, it looked like someone had a fun weekend. She didn't know why but the thought made her insides burn at about a thousand degrees. Why the hell was she jealous of whoever had slept with Regina? It wasn't like she had any claim on the other woman. But still her heart beat just a little bit faster and her face flushed a deep red. Damn fair complexions.

She stepped into the office and took a few deep breaths. She couldn't go into the next set of interviews visibly flustered. She had to have the power if anything conclusive was going to be found out from any of the interviews. The man that she'd pointed out to Scarlet was in the next set of interviews. She needed to be on her game for that. He really did have potential to be the mole.

When she felt her heart rate decrease to a normal level and the heat on her face fade she stepped out of the office again. God damn Regina Mills and this whole fucking job. All she wanted was to be a million miles away. The stupid woman was throwing her off her game in the worst way. Stupid beautiful woman that seemed out to fucking spite her. God, she just needed to get laid and then maybe this wouldn't be such a big deal.

She went and practically dragged the next woman into the interview room with her and set to giving the poor woman probably the most terrifying interview of her life all the while thinking of the interview she'd been having with Regina later. She shifted slightly in her seat more than a few times to relieve the pressure building in her lower body. Fucking Regina Mills.

Oh, Regina had had a wonderful weekend. Her knees were still a little weak and she strode into work on Monday morning. She didn't need Miss White for anything. The pathetic little woman wasn't worth an ounce of her time. She could see that now after such a _relaxing_ weekend. The man she'd sparred with had known his way around the female form, that was for certain. It was certainly why she'd let a one night stand turn into two. But that didn't mean she wasn't pleased on Sunday afternoon when she'd woken up to an empty bed and no note.

Now she was back in fine form. She walked out of the elevator and shot Miss White her snarkiest smile. She saw the woman's confused look and felt her smile grow that much bigger.

"Good morning, Miss White," she tossed over her shoulder. Perhaps that was a little bit too much, but she rather didn't care as she strutted to her little cubicle. Oh, this almost made the tedious work of sorting through files worth it. A few more shots at Miss White just to show her how far below her she was and maybe it would be worth it. Surely a parting shot at lunch as she left to get her favorite empanadas from one of the food trucks that made its way round on Mondays and coming back after lunch and then one more at the end of the day…yes, that would make it all worth it.

Regina sat down and sighed, digging into her files for the day. A pleased smile graced her face as she saw she'd finally gotten a new slew of international data to analyze. Oh, how the day was looking up after all.

Miss White wasn't in her normal position by the elevators as she went out to get lunch. It was disappointing but not overly so. Eating her empanadas out in the sunshine had more than made up for it. She had just come in once again and sat down when Miss White was at the entrance of her cubicle. Regina glanced up with a glare fixed firmly in place.

"What, Miss White? Some of us have a job to do that doesn't involve walking around watching others actually be productive."

Ah, that made up for missing her pre-lunch insult to the woman.

"I'm here to interview you, Regina. It's part of the process. If you'd come with me."

Regina didn't miss the slightly clenching of the woman's hands and the tension in her back as she turned away. Regina smiled and followed the woman to one of the corner offices.

"Isn't this normally David's office?"

"Not for the day." Miss White gestured at a chair. "Sit."

Regina walked over and perched primly on the edge of the seat. She watched Emma get ready, shuffling papers around and drawing out a tape recorder. The blonde set it on the edge of the desk after pressing record.

"Alright, so the first few questions are going to echo your entrance interviews for the job. The rest will all be geared towards your productivity. Avoiding the question won't get you anywhere so I suggest you actually answer my questions the first time and with enough detail to be satisfactory, after all we wouldn't want to blemish your perfect record now would we?"

Regina just cocked an eyebrow. "I suppose not."

"Good. Ok, first, the obligatory state your name and place and date of birth."

"Regina Mills, New York City, February 2nd 1979."

Miss White nodded. "Do you have any ties to organizations that could compromise the security of the United States of America."

"No."

Lying this time around wasn't nearly as hard as when she was strapped into a polygraph machine. Not that it wasn't possible, but having to only focus on keeping her voice smooth and face expressionless was much easier than keeping her heart rate and breathing even as well. She didn't even know why the government relied on tests that could be so easily fooled.

"Any, family, friends or acquaintances that could be using you and your access to classified information for destructive purposes?"

"No, I'm not exactly a social butterfly and as for family, well my file should tell you they're all dead."

Miss White looked her over carefully. "You sure, your weak knees tell a different story."

"That's none of your business, Miss White." Regina's face darkened as she sat up straighter.

"You've got quite the black eye under all that makeup too. Sure someone didn't try to get some information out of you? Maybe the same person who gave you those weak knees."

"It was an accident in martial arts class, Miss White. My sparring partner got a little too eager."

"Mhm." The blonde shuffled the papers in front of her again. "Are you using the information you attain in this job for any illegal purposes, including selling it to others, leaking it on the internet, tipping people off of the government's movements against them?"

All of the above, Regina thought. "No."

"How many people know of your job here?"

"Only me and the people who work here."

"So your boyfriend has no idea what you do."

"Again, it is none of your business, Miss White."

"You work for the government, you checked the privacy privilege at the door."

"He's not my boyfriend, Miss White. He was a weekend companion. I'm not even sure what his name was. Mostly I just screamed 'Oh God' and left it at that." She shot a smirk Miss White's way. She didn't miss the slight blowing of pupils and the increase of her pulse in her neck.

The blonde went on asking her questions, Regina kept on side stepping them easily or just blatantly lying. She watched the other woman get angrier and angrier as the interview went on. Regina just nonchalantly looked at her nails and yawned. She did so love the taste of victory.

When Miss White reached for the tape recorder and turned it off Regina stood to leave. The blonde glared up at her.

"We're not done yet."

"But you've turned off your tape recorder, Miss White. That usually signals the end of interviews around here."

"We aren't done until I say."

Regina rolled her eyes but sat back down. "Do so waste some more of my time, Miss White. We've already been at this for an hour and a half. I'm quite sure some of the questions you asked me were the exact same as a few previous questions but I sat through them because I'm quite aware that the government likes to cover all of its bases in literally every single aspect, but there is quite a bit of work I need to do now that you have detained me for quite some time so I would appreciate it if you would be brief now that we have seemed to have come to the end of the official part of the interview."

The blonde stood and circled around the desk, leaning on a corner, now only a few inches from Regina. Regina wasn't impressed. This was a common intimidation tactic. She'd been tortured on more than one occasion. Short of shoving bamboo splinters under her nails the woman in front of her wasn't going to impress her.

"Why don't you like me? What the hell have I ever done to you?"

"Insinuate that I'm a liar, perhaps? That usually doesn't endear people to you."

"Ok, fine, whatever. But you know, most people don't take that and act like a complete stone cold bitch. You know, most normal people just ignore the person they don't like. You practically flaunted your damn one night stand in front of me and are sniping at me at every damn chance you get."

Regina stood and took a step closer to the other woman. "Have you ever considered that different people take to anger differently?"

"What so you go fuck a guy and then taunt the object of your anger about it? Seems effective."

"More like I used him as a form of stress relief, dear. I needed to remind myself that peasants like you aren't worth getting worked up over." She could feel the other woman's breath on her face. It was warm, moist, smelled like peppermint.

"Oh, excuse me your majesty, I didn't realize I was in the presence of royalty. Would you like me to bow or some shit? Maybe kiss your royal ass?"

"I admit you groveling before me has its aesthetic appeal."

"Jesus fuck, you are one fucked up lady."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Regina smiled.

"Of fucking course you would."

"Why wouldn't I? I'm not aiming to be liked by someone like you."

"What the hell does that even mean, someone like me?"

Her eyes scanned up and down the blonde's form. "Well, badly dressed, badly mannered trash that managed to find its way off the street."

The blonde reached out and grabbed Regina's lapels. Regina stopped herself from reacting as she normally would or the woman would have been dead on the floor in the next second.

"Unhand me," she ground out, looking into green eyes.

"Make me."

"I'll scream and bring every single person on this floor in here."

"No you won't, you too damn proud for that."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Shut up."

"Why don't you make me, dear, if you aren't going to let go of me."

Miss White surged forward, but instead of the headbutt she thought was coming she found a pair of lips that were so very soft against her own. They moved expertly against hers and Regina froze for just a second before her body responded on her own instinct, kissing back. And oh, if she had thought the man this weekend had known what he was doing, the blonde in front of her was a hundred times better. That fact angered her just a little bit, but a swipe of tongue against her lips and that slipped away. She opened her lips and the kiss deepened and drew a groan from somewhere deep inside her. Another sounded from the blonde and Regina's eyes finally fluttered shut.

There was just something about this kiss that she couldn't name. She was still so very, very angry at the woman in front of her, but instead of killing her as she was wont to do, she wanted to strip her down and fuck her into the floor until she was nothing but a babbling mess of carpet burn and limp muscles and then kiss the burn better. This was not who she was, but it was what she wanted.

She thought back to green eyes and that orgasm that she had had days before at her own hands. She thought of the feeling that she'd had afterwards, that doomed feeling that she'd been fighting against this whole time. She hadn't felt it for a long time, not since sunny tropical days of years past. Hadn't _felt_ anything truly for a long time, but here she was.

She slipped her arms around Emma White's waist. This wasn't who she was. This would probably get her killed. Best case scenario Emma ended up dead. But she kept on kissing the woman in front of her because now that she started she was damn sure she couldn't stop. And oh did it scare her, but she dragged her hands up the other woman's back and drew her closer anyway.

Emma broke away first, gasping for breath. The look in her eyes matched exactly what Regina was feeling.

"Well, I suppose we know why you got so angry over the fact that I might have a boyfriend." Regina laughed and leaned her forehead on the other woman's.

The blonde blinked rapidly. "You always this bitchy to the people you kiss like that?"

"I'm quite sure that I haven't kissed anyone quite like that."

"I—um—yeah. So one of my colleagues is going to have to do this whole interview over again because I think that just totally made it null and void. I, um, have to go now. And, like arrange that, so um…"

Regina deflated just the tiniest bit. Her world seemed to have aligned during that kiss. Emma's seemed to have shattered. Oh, it figured.

"Go, Miss White, do whatever you need to do." Regina's voice dropped back to ice cold again and she stepped back. She missed the heat of another body almost instantly.

"Yeah, I just, yeah."

Emma fled out of the room and Regina slumped down into the seat she'd been occupying now for a long while. What she would give to unsee the fireworks behind her eyelids that had gone off when Emma's lips had met hers. Life was less complicated when she was just stealing information from the U.S. government and giving it to her own. She sighed and waited for whoever was going to interview her.


	5. 5: Avoidance Tactics

Emma ran out of the room like it was on fire. That was not in the plan. That was never in the plan. How the hell could she be so stupid? That woman in there was _not_ cleared from being the mole. Regina could have slipped a god damn knife in-between her ribs for all she knew. The fucking plan was to fuck her after she'd been cleared. And that was before the woman turned into a stone cold bitch, never mind that the stone cold bitch act turned her on, that was beside the point.

And that was before she'd kissed her and—Emma swallowed. God, she didn't even want to think about it. That kiss, it had evoked so many feelings, feelings she'd repressed for years now. She didn't want to remember Phoenix and boys with charming smiles. But she hadn't felt that way being kissed since then. This was only supposed to be a quick fuck like normal, no feelings, but God if those fireworks behind her eyelids when she'd planted one on Regina didn't belie that. If she slept with the woman there would be no coming back. She knew it.

This wasn't a course of action for her. Not since Phoenix and stone walls that she couldn't escape and men in suits coming to her and asking her if she wanted a second chance. She'd accepted without a second thought. And she never regretted it. She was so much better than she was. Until now.

So Emma did what she did best. She disappeared after sending Mary Margret to interview Regina again. Just because she wasn't emotionally all there didn't mean she couldn't do her job. After, she ran up the stairs until she hit the top. She burst out on the roof and took a deep breath as fresh air hit her. A few gasping breaths later and she managed to move forward. God, she loved having the highest clearance there was. No one would question why her badge had been used to access the roof.

She made her way to one of the giant AC units and slumped down on the gravel and tar roof. The gravel poked into her, but she didn't care. She was going to get killed if she went down this road. This would give all of her enemies something to target. This assignment wasn't permanent. She'd find the mole and move on and then this would be a huge liability. People in her profession didn't have feelings. They couldn't. How else were you supposed to kill without blinking if you had to, to get the information you needed.

That's why she was chosen for this job. She had no connections, no family or friends to get in the way. And she was damned good and breaking into places without the slightest notice. After all, who pays attention to the ratty little foster kid? The government had seen potential in her and so here she was. This was the only life she'd ever known. And she'd be throwing it all away in a heartbeat if she let herself get lost in brown eyes that seemed to have no end.

Fuck. Just fucking fuck. That was all she wanted to fucking do. She was fucking doomed.

Emma didn't go down to the floor for the rest of the day. She couldn't make herself. She could make herself scale hundred foot buildings hanging by only her fingers and toes, but God forbid she go back and face a woman she'd just kissed like it was the last thing she'd ever do. But whatever, it wasn't like there was much of the day left anyway.

But then there was tomorrow and she sure as hell couldn't just not fucking show up. One, she wasn't a fucking coward and two, that would raise questions that she didn't want to answer if some of her higher ups found out. She generally trusted her organization to not kill her, but that was when she wasn't a possible liability.

Fucking fuck this. She'd go in tomorrow just like any other fucking day and she would fucking do her job and she would clear the floor like she was supposed to and then she'd deal with the Regina problem. It would be safer to deal with the Regina problem after she'd been cleared, if only marginally. If she was the mole and Emma was involved with her she knew she'd be dead. If she was a civilian…she might only be sort in danger of being dead. So just like normal really. She could maybe handle that.

Maybe. Then there would be emotions. And God knew that she could handle death threats before she could ever handle feelings. And fuck wasn't it too early to talk about feelings anyway? She had kissed the woman. She'd kissed more than a few people in her time. It didn't mean feelings. Why the hell was she running away from this now? Why was she making such a big deal about it?

Because this wasn't like the other kisses. This wasn't like anything. Not even a boy who promised paradise in the form of Tallahassee. But how the fuck did she even know that? This was just a woman with a stick up her ass who happened to be drop dead fucking gorgeous and kissed her back like she was the only thing that mattered.

Emma groaned and banged her head off the AC unit. She needed to go home. It was past the work day anyway now. Then she needed to open up the closest bottle of Jack and then drown herself in more alcohol than anyone of her size and stature should possibly be able to handle until she couldn't fucking think and then she needed to sleep, wake the fuck up, and come back to this place like nothing had fucking happened and just maybe in the two or three more days that it would take to clear the floor she would figure out how to either cut and run and save herself from whatever her brain and heart were doing to her or figure out how to fucking do it right. If there was a way to do it right. No one had taught her about this. They'd taught her how to assemble a rifle in under ten seconds. But dating? She snorted. She was totally on her own.

She pulled herself off of the gravel and made her way back down to the third floor to grab her stuff. Thank god she'd learned that one fool proof hangover cure in the mountains of China. She was sure she was going to need it tomorrow morning. She sighed and grabbed her bag and turned for the elevator. The floor was dimly lit now, lights switched off after office hours, except for one cubicle was still brightly lit. Emma took one look at Regina lit by golden lamp light and ran for the elevator.

Emma had drank so much that her fool proof hangover cure had only halfway cured her hangover. She made her way into the office, eyes behind sunglasses, stomach trying to expel its contents every few minutes, and a headache that was trying to split her head in half. That still was nothing compared to how she'd woken up. She'd barely been able to move to grab the premixed bottle of her disgusting little hangover cure let alone choke it down, but here she was. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to drink herself into a stupor. It never really was a good idea when in her line of work, but damn if she didn't need it every once in a while to just take the edge off of the stress after completing a mission. She never took it this far though.

She threw down her stuff and flopped down in the chair by the elevator like normal. She just needed to get through this day and she needed to find the nearest vending machine with some fucking aspirin at the first opportunity. Why the fuck she hadn't thought to stock her little temporary house with all the necessities yet, she had no fucking clue. Sure, she had the shit to make a hangover cure that involved herbs that usually couldn't be found in the U.S., but having aspirin, God forbid she have that.

Regina walked in a little later than normal and Emma couldn't fucking help but perk up just a little as she had every freaking day since meeting her. She saw Regina's eyes sweep over her, cold once more. She wanted them to be warm again like they had after their kiss yesterday. They'd almost looked like hot chocolate with flecks of cinnamon. Now they looked like obsidian chipped to a sharp point. And damn if it wasn't her fault.

Emma looked away, biting her lip. She couldn't deal with this right now when she was still this hung over. If her job was the kind with sick days she totally would have called in just to avoid this. Her head started to pound that much harder.

She watched the rest of the people trickle in, noting down the late comers before going about her rounds again. Everyone was working hard, or at least they were when she passed by. If the idiots didn't think that she saw some of them totally spacing out and then suddenly snapping back to attention when she came into view they needed their heads checked. If she really was an efficiency consultant they would be screwed up the ass.

During one of her turns around the floor Mary Margret came up to her. Emma smiled at her politely before grimacing and rubbing her temples. God her head still hurt even an hour later.

"Here's the results from the interview you asked me to do. She wasn't the nicest, actually seemed to dislike me quite a lot, but everything I got out of her was above level. I even dug further just to make sure, but all her records come back clean. Just a couple parking tickets, the normal."

Emma nodded. "Good."

"Why did you want me to re-interview her anyway?" The short brunette's eyes were curious.

"She got under my skin, thought it would be better to have her interview redone for the best results."

Mary Margret nodded, accepting this. "I could see that. She has quite the bad attitude."

"Yeah, understatement." Emma shook her head. "Anyway, continue on with the interviews. It's looking like we might not find them on this floor. Tell Scarlet that we need a meeting after their shift ends today to discuss everything, okay?"

The other woman nodded. "Alright. See you then."

She walked off again and Emma started to walk around again. Her mouth was starting to feel like a dried up cotton ball. She looked over to the water cooler. Regina wasn't over there. It was a little early for her water break anyway. She wandered around, meandering through the cubicles until she was filling a cup up and slamming back the water like it was a shot. Maybe she would feel better if she got water back into her system instead of just a water bottle full of questionable ingredients she'd obtained from rather questionable sources.

On her third cup a voice spoke behind her. "Here." The voice was deep and silky, pure sex.

Emma took a deep breath and sighed before turning around to face Regina. The woman held her hand out looking at Emma expectantly. Emma looked her over carefully before putting out her hand. Regina deposited two white pills in her hand before nudging past her and filling a cup with water.

"You look like death, dear. And you keep rubbing your temples, so aspirin." Regina stepped back, eyes still guarded as she looked at Emma.

Emma looked down at the two pills in her hands and almost cried. God, she really fucking needed these. But then she looked up at the woman that had given them to her. She sipped her water and just looked at her, waiting.

The pain in her head was too much. She popped them in her mouth and took a gulp of water. A smile ghosted across Regina's face as she crumpled up her now empty water cup and walked back to her desk without a word. Emma just stared after her, wondering what the hell just happened.

She knew her eyes were drifting back to Regina's cubicle far too often. Emma could feel it. But for the life of her she couldn't stop it. It's like her eyes were a compass and no matter how she twisted and turned her eyes always returned to magnetic north, Regina. God, did she need a fucking bar magnet right now so she could pull herself away from Regina's magnetic field.

But then the end of the day came and everyone started to trickle out, Regina included. Emma could breathe easier once the elevator doors closed behind Regina for the day. Thank the Lord God, Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

Scarlet and Mary Margret were already sitting in one of the interview rooms after she'd come back from her final rounds making sure everyone was out of the office. She flopped down at the head of the table.

"So, how are we doing?" she asked. "Anyone throwing up flags?"

"Nope, so far everyone is checking out at first glance. The guys running all of the computer information see nothing suspicious either. They've tapped everyone cell phones too, but that's lead to nothing. Anyone you've given us that's been coming in late has had legitimate reasons that checked out. Well, legitimate in the fact that they aren't the mole. Some were rather…interesting to say the least. The bugs planted in the office haven't turned up anything even mildly suspicious. The bugs in the homes of the people we thought had potential are duds too." Scarlet shrugged. "Plus, even without all of the hard evidence, none of these people just have that vibe, you know? None of them exactly scream 'hello, yes, I am an international spy that could kill you with my pinky.'"

Emma looked over at Mary Margret and looked back at Scarlet, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh come on, she looks like a grade school teacher but you knew as soon as you saw her that she wasn't a normal citizen."

"Ok, fair enough." Emma looked over at the other woman. "Your input?"

"No one seems suspicious to me either. They'll open up to me more because I seem to nonthreatening, but still, nothing had turned up. I've been looking for certain mannerisms and there just aren't any. No one has that air of always watching and cataloguing everything they see. The way I see it they don't have to be a normal spy, just an everyday Joe getting paid off for secrets. Even then I just don't see it."

Emma nodded. "How many more interviews do you have?"

Mary Margret and Scarlet looked at each other for a second before turning back to her. "Should only take another day," Scarlet said.

"At most a day and a half." Mary Margret nodded.

"Alright, start writing your reports to send in. This floor isn't done yet, but better to get started on those bitches early. I'll start to set up everything for the next floor. They're dropping us down to some of the heavier hitters in the basement this time."

Both of the other women nodded. Emma stood up and stretched. Her body still didn't feel right, but after Regina had given her those aspirin she had at least been able to function more normally.

"Thanks for all your hard work so far. Sucks we didn't luck out and find the fucker on the first try, but." Emma shrugged. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

The other women stood and said their goodbyes and filed out of the room. Emma followed behind them, grabbing her stuff and heading home. As soon as she was home in the quiet the thoughts of Regina started and couldn't be stopped. This time instead of hitting the alcohol to get Regina off her mind, she jumped on the treadmill and ran and ran until all that she could focus on was the breath in and out of her lungs and the burn in her muscles. Still, as soon as she was off the machine and wobbling to the shower so she could collapse into bed, Regina was back in the front of her mind staring at her with whiskey eyes.

It was the last day she had to be on this God forsaken floor. Last day she had to be faced by Regina at literally every twist and turn. She felt the woman's eyes on her everywhere she went on this floor. Only half a day more. At lunch she would be down in the basement setting up. It was a relief.

At least that's what she told her sinking stomach. It was bullshit. Never mind that the woman had given her aspirin and then somehow a bunch of caramel apple empanadas had shown up on top of her stuff after lunch yesterday and they were the tastiest fucking things she'd ever god damn had. No none of that mattered. The woman was still acting like a stone cold bitch to her when she wasn't randomly giving her gifts and assorted medicine. That's all that mattered. She would get her killed.

Yet, her eyes wandered towards the woman yet again from her post by the elevator watching everyone arrive for the final time. When the woman was out of her sight it would all be fine. Out of sight out of mind. Of course that wasn't always true. She thought about snipers pretty much constantly but that didn't mean she actually saw them. Ugh, that was totally beside the point. The last few hours were going to drag at this rate.

She walked around the floor later, purposely avoiding Regina's row of cubicles. No need to make this any harder on herself than need be. Scarlet came and gave her the final interview she needed to do. Emma sent her down to the basement to make sure everything was set up as planned. Only a few more hours and she was home free now.

Emma was truly glad that her position in this team was as the one who walked around and looked for strange behavior. She was sure she couldn't sit still right now, let alone concentrate on an interview and looking for subtle signs of lying.

With an hour left until lunch Mary Margret came to her and handed off the last of her interview papers. She sent the woman to finish up her report and went to the floor supervisor. She gave him a few suggested improvements, but otherwise gave a good review of his workers. After all, it wasn't really her job to improve the efficiency, but getting that meat head that she interviewed the other day to straighten up his act, well, that just seemed better for everyone involved and kept her cover intact.

She was all ready to leave after that. She was meeting with her team in the basement after lunch and they'd move on. Her eyes sought out Regina once again. She could finally end this and get away from the woman. She could finally run.

And then something snapped in her. Fuck this. Fuck running. She had to run so much just because she had to. But no one was holding a gun against her head this time and she wasn't being directed to move on by her government. There was no reason to run this time. This time she was just being a coward. And if there was something that Emma White wasn't it was a fucking coward.

She marched up to Regina Mills's cubicle. The woman looked up at her, eyebrow cocked. She grabbed a stack of post-it notes off her desk, scribbled down her number and shoved it at the woman.

"Here, text me your address. Friday I'm taking you out to dinner at seven."

"I do believe asking someone out on a date, Miss White, actually requires a question not a demand."

"Who said I was asking?"

The woman rolled her eyes but took out her cell phone and typed in Emma's number. She typed out a quick text and looked up at Emma again.

"You're lucky you're a pretty woman, dear. But still, I'd get a little less demanding before Friday."

Emma just looked down at her, lip being assaulted by her teeth. "We'll see about that, no promises."

Regina smiled at her. "Then I'll see you on Friday."

"Good."

And with that Emma swept from the room and descended to the basement with a giant smile on her face.


	6. 6: A Little Taste of Home

Regina smiled down at the little piece of paper in her hands. Well that had taken a tad bit longer than she thought it would for Emma to come around. For a while she worried that she'd miscalculated and the woman was going to run and never look back. Which would have been a shame, but probably would have been better in the long run for her health and yet she didn't care, staring down at the number before her.

She quickly grabbed out her cell phone and quickly programmed in the number. She bit the inside of her lip and pulled up a blank text message. If she sent Emma her address now would it be viewed as too soon? Would she seem desperate? Desperate was not something that Regina Mills was. She put her phone down and resolved to text the other woman after lunch. She quickly dug out her container of gazpacho and set to eating in record time.

**Miss White, it's Regina. My address is 259 State Street, McLean Virginia, 22103. I trust you can find it, and don't be late.**

Regina looked over the text once again before nodding and hitting the send button. That didn't seem desperate, no that came off in her normal no nonsense tone. Good.

Now she would just have to wait until Friday. She frowned. It was only a day and a half away, but that seemed like such a long time. God, she really needed to stop acting like such a teenager. Never mind that she felt giddy for the first time in years, it wouldn't do for an operative of her standing to be so mushy.

No, this was only her making the best out of a bad thing. Since she was going to be here for God knew how long she might as well date around. It would only cement her cover that much more. Yes, that was a good reason. It wasn't because she actually felt like this could go somewhere and actually be something. No, it was part of her cover. At least that was what she was going to tell herself.

She picked up another file now that she had sent off her text and eaten her lunch and started to read. Regina didn't pick up a word of what it said, mind wandering thinking of what exactly in her closet would be acceptable for a date. Most of what she owned were work clothes. She bit the inside of her lip and flipped a page of the file idly. Maybe a shopping trip was in order. Her mind went off on another tangent wondering just what exactly would leave Miss White completely speechless. Regina wore a grin the rest of the day and got absolutely nothing done.

She walked out of the CIA on Friday, steps more clipped than normal. She'd gotten out of work a tad bit later than normal. Regina was infinitely glad she lived nearby. Two hours was a squeeze to get ready and now she had even less time to get ready.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

_Hey, Regina, just confirming seven still works for you tonight._

A smile made its way onto Regina's face. She'd exchanged text messages a few times over the past day and a half with the other woman. Their banter had made the transition from actually hostile to playful and witty. Regina was pleased that the woman was smart enough to keep up with her and give as good as she got. The kiss had proved that there was definitely chemistry between them, but she was glad to discover that it wasn't only just physical.

**Yes, Emma, seven is fine. Though, if you happened to be a few minutes late I wouldn't hold it against you. I'm just walking out of work now and I still have to get ready.**

Her phone buzzed again almost immediately. She typed out an answer as she walked to her car.

_I think you could wear a paper sack and look absolutely stunning. Nevertheless, I might take a few minute longer than I normally would just to humor you._

**I wouldn't want to steal cues from your wardrobe, dear.**

_Hey, I don't wear paper sacks! My clothes are perfectly fine._

**Your garish leather jacket says otherwise dear.**

_Oh please, you saw that once from a distance. You don't know how awesome it looks._

**I suppose I'll take your word for it. For now.**

_You can pass judgment later today._

**You are NOT wearing that on our date.**

_:) See you at 7._

Regina rolled her eyes and threw her phone back in her purse as she dug out her car keys. Whatever was she going to do with the other woman? She slipped into her car and drove off, going through everything she had to do before seven in her head, smiling.

The doorbell rang at 7:05 just as Regina was putting the finishing touches on her lipstick. She rubbed her lips together and fluffed the ends of her hair once more. She gave her reflection a once over and nodded. She would do for the night.

Regina made her way down the hall, cat trotting at her heels. She shot the animal a look, mentally telling it to shoo, but the cat just looked up at her with wide eyes, sitting in the middle of the hall. Regina sighed and opened her door just as the doorbell rang again.

Her breath stopped momentarily as she took in Emma. Her blonde curls were out of the bun she normally wore at work, trailing down her shoulders in perfectly tousled waves. Her legs were incased in tight black denim that lead down to black heeled boots. Regina's eyes trailed up to a white silk button up, tucked into the jeans, and a bright red leather jacket. She took in the garment carefully. She supposed it wasn't as horrible up close, it sort of brought the outfit together, really, but she wasn't about to let Emma know that.

She met Emma's green eyes. "My, my, Miss White, it seems you do know how to clean up well."

A smirk graced Emma's face. "I could say the same for you, Regina." Green eyes trailed down over the tight blue dress she was wearing, lingering for a long second on where the dress stopped just above her knees.

A slight blush crept up Regina's neck. She was quite used to being checked out; she knew exactly how attractive she was and reveled in the attention that came with it, but attention from Emma was somehow different, better.

"Why don't you come in for a few minutes while I gather the last of my things?" Regina asked, snapping Emma out of her staring contest with her legs.

Regina stepped back and Emma stepped in. The cat took that instant to walk forward and meow at Emma loudly. Regina shot a glare at the cat. She did _not_ want to look like some sort of cat lady, but of course the cat had other ideas. Of course.

"Oh, hey, kitty." Emma bent down, hand stretched out towards the cat.

The cat took one sniff of Emma's hand and rubbed against it, purring. Emma smiled up at Regina.

"The cat has good tastes just like its owner."

Regina snorted. "I'm beginning to question our tastes, especially when our tastes seem to involve blondes in red leather."

Emma gave the cat one last scratch and stood up. "Oh, you like it, don't think I didn't see you checking me out."

"Maybe I was admiring the way those jeans are almost painted on, not the leather jacket."

"You totally did both." Emma stepped forward into her personal space.

"You'll never know."

Regina stepped back and walked down the hallway. "Be right back, dear. Don't get too friendly with my cat."

The cat, for its part started to wind around Emma's legs as Emma watched Regina walk down the hall on impossibly high heels.

Regina grabbed her purse and a wrap to cover her bare arms if need be. It was almost summer, so it shouldn't be needed, but better safe than sorry. She returned to Emma a minute later.

"Shall we?" she asked.

Emma smiled and opened the door. "Let's."

Regina walked out the door and into the hall. Emma followed behind her, leaving the cat to sit in the hall, staring after them. Regina quickly locked up and they walked towards the parking lot of Regina's apartment complex.

"So are you going to tell me where it is we're going now, Miss White?" Regina asked as they emerged into the evening air.

"What would the surprise be if I revealed it right at the eleventh hour?" Emma smiled over at her.

"I'm not one for surprises."

"Oh, come on, it's not like anyone is going to pop out and kill you, Regina. It's just a date. If you ended up dead that would sort of put a damper on things."

"I don't know, Miss White, some people have a thing for corpses."

Emma groaned loudly. "You did not just bring up necrophilia."

"Other than the fact that you're an efficiency consultant currently working for the CIA I don't quite know that much about you. You could be a necrophiliac for all I know." Regina just shot a look at Emma.

"Yeah, no, that's not one the surprises that you have to worry about from me."

"Good to know, Emma."

They stopped at a perfectly restored bright yellow VW beetle. Regina cocked an eyebrow and looked at Emma. Emma just smiled.

"Isn't she a beauty? I may or may not have a thing about vintage cars. If I had my way I'd have a whole garage full, but being an efficiency consultant doesn't pay _that_ well. So this was the compromise."

"I think I'll stick with my Benz." Regina walked around to the passenger's side and waited for the other woman to unlock the car.

"But Bugs are a classic, Regina. You have to appreciate them." Emma slipped inside the car and popped the locks.

Regina climbed in the small vehicle. "I prefer to have more leg room. Though I do admit, they are cute in their own way."

Emma shrugged. "Not what I was looking for, but I'll take it."

She pulled the bug out of its parking space and puttered towards the street. Emma guided them expertly through Friday night traffic and pulled on to the highway towards D.C. Regina paid close attention to the way they were going, hoping to deduce just where the other woman was taking her, but the D.C. area was huge and there was no way she could really get a feel for it.

They chatted idly as the cruised closer to the city. Regina had never been this at ease just making pleasant conversation with someone. It always felt so forced with other people, but with Emma it wasn't. The words came easily and what silences there were weren't awkward. By the time they pulled into a parking space in one of the hipper districts of D.C. Regina felt that she had laughed more in one short car ride than she had in the last year.

Regina looked around, taking in the area around them. "Where exactly are we?"

"Adams-Morgan, I like to come here on my off time. It's a pretty awesome place." Emma gestured at a restaurant across the street. "And my favorite restaurant is here, so it's a nice perk. It's Columbian food, I hope you're good with that. If you aren't this place has like 5603 restaurants."

Regina looked across the street and her stomach did a few flips. Oh, she was more than good with Columbian food. "Really, exactly 5603 restaurants? But yes, dear, I'm up for Columbian food."

Emma smiled widely. "Great, you're going to love this place. I swear, no place gets the food right except this place. It's what Columbian food should taste like."

Emma popped out of the car and hurried around, opening the door for Regina. Regina cocked an eyebrow but got out of the car gracefully.

"My, my, aren't we being chivalrous today?"

"I do what I can." Emma shrugged. She grabbed Regina's hand and pulled her across the street. "Now, come on, I can taste the food already and I'm starving."

Regina tried to ignore the tingles shooting up her arm from just holding Emma's hand as she stumbled forward just a little. She found she couldn't, though. The little sparks rocketed off around her body waking up parts of her that she wasn't even aware of. It was an odd, yet wonderful, feeling.

They entered the restaurant and Regina was hit square in the face with the smell of home. Her eyes fluttered closed as she took another deep breath, fighting tears. The longing for home hadn't left her since she'd seen Emma the week before and now she was standing in a restaurant that smelled like her father's kitchen. It was a little much.

Emma's hand squeezed hers. Regina opened her eyes and looked at the other woman. The blonde was staring straight ahead, looking for the hostess. The corners of Regina's mouth pulled up and she laced their fingers together, returning the squeeze. The homesickness wasn't quite as bad as it had been with her hand in the other woman's.

The hostess popped up from the back. "Hi, table for two?" Regina recognized the slight accent. She was from a province not too far from where Regina herself had grown up.

Emma nodded. "Yup."

"Right this way."

She led them to the back of the restaurant to a secluded little two top. The girl set down the menus and smiled before walking off again. Emma pulled out a chair and gestured for Regina to sit.

"Trying to be the white knight?" Regina sat down and held back a squeak as Emma scooted her forward with ease.

Emma sat down in her own chair. "That's an awful lot of armor. Plus, I don't know, the black knight has always sort of had more of a drawl for me, you know? Much more morally ambiguous but he always gets shit done while the white knight is sitting there debating on a way to do the job without hurting anyone. It always occurred to me that maybe there were more people getting hurt in the end from him not doing his job promptly than he was saving trying to be a good guy."

"Interesting perspective, Emma."

"You don't agree?"

"No, I do. It's just strange to meet another person who shares the same view."

Emma smiled brightly at her. "Good to know we agree on something."

"That's one thing out of how many now?"

"Shh, let's not think about that."

Regina laughed. "I suppose for now that can be arranged."

The waitress came to take their food and drink orders before disappearing again. Emma laid her hand on top of the table, halfway across. Regina took the hint immediately and slipped her hand in the other woman's. She heard Emma sigh contently and smile across at her.

"Is it weird to say this early that this is the best date I've ever been on?" A slight blush colored Emma's cheeks.

"No, because I'm thinking the same thing, honestly."

"We must have had really crappy dating lives up to this point."

Regina smiled at Emma. "Or this time we just found someone rather exceptional to date. Even if they did take a few days to come around after they kissed me to shut me up."

The blush on Emma's cheeks deepened. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Give me a break."

"I'm not the one who hid on the roof for the rest of the day."

"How did you know that?"

"Saw the gravel stuck to you when you came down to get your stuff later that day."

"I didn't think you noticed me."

"I don't miss much, Emma."

"I'm never going to get anything by you then, am I?"

"Nope." Regina's smile morphed into a smug smirk.

"Be a little more smug, I dare you."

"Don't challenge me, Miss White, not if you don't want to see the results."

The waitress chose that moment to bring their food. Emma pulled her hand out of Regina's to make room for the plates. Regina folded her hands in her lap, trying to convince herself that she didn't already miss the skin on skin contact with the other woman so soon.

"Oh my god, I'm so excited you don't even know," Emma said, grabbing her silverware out of the napkin on the table.

"A little over excited about a bit of food, aren't you?" Regina pulled her own silverware out at a slower pace, even though she was just excited if not more than the blonde. The tamales in front of her actually looked like they were supposed to, not their odd Americanized counterparts, and God the smell was heavenly.

"No, you don't understand, this isn't just food, Regina. It is an experience. But I don't know, when you realize just how scarce food can be I guess you just appreciate it more."

Regina cocked her head to the side, questioning. But Emma didn't look at her. Her eyes were closed and an obscene groan left her mouth as she put the first bite of food in her mouth. That groan did interesting things to Regina, sending a shot of heat straight between her legs.

Regina set down her own silverware. "What do you mean, Emma?"

Emma's eyes blinked open. "I was a foster kid when I was younger." She shrugged and looked away. "Sometimes, well, a lot of the time the families I was with spent the money they got for having us on things that weren't food. So finding something to eat was interesting at best."

"Oh." Regina bit her lip. Wordlessly she extended her leg and rubbed it up and down Emma's calf in what she hoped was a comforting gesture since the woman's hands were occupied.

Emma smiled up at her weakly. "It's cool. Those days are gone now."

Regina nodded and picked up her silverware again. She opened her tamale expertly and brought a forkful to her mouth. Sun kissed days and tropical weather came back to her in an instant as she chewed. Oh, it was just like home, so much she could cry.

"Like it?" Emma asked.

Regina opened her eyes and looked at the other woman. "More than you know."

A full-fledged beam lit up Emma's face. "I'm glad. Some people aren't fond of this type of food. Too spicy or some bullshit like that." Emma shoved a bite of food into her mouth. "I have no problem with spice. It's fucking delicious."

Regina shot her a disapproving look at the fact that she was talking with her mouth full, but the look didn't have her normal venom behind it. "I grew up with food quite similar to this, Miss White. Spice is not a foreign concept to me. I quite prefer a little spice in my life."

"Oh really now?" Emma cocked an eyebrow. "What kind of spice?"

Regina quickly picked up the fact that they'd left the topic of food entirely. "Oh, I don't know, Emma. Perhaps you'll figure it out as we go along." She added a wink at the end of her sentence, feeling bold.

Emma gaped for a second before continuing. "Right, um, yeah, ok." She took a deep breath. "So you grew up with food like this?"

Regina nodded. "My father was from Venezuela. He liked to cook foods from his home country often." Her cover story for this assignment was as close to fact as they ever got. She needed cause to know a foreign language and have intimate knowledge of other countries outside of the U.S. to help her secure a job at the CIA, and having a parent from another country was a good reason. It made her feel like she wasn't quite lying to the woman in front of her. For some reason lying to Emma made her stomach bottom out. She couldn't pay any mind to that feeling though, that would get them both killed.

"Oh, cool. That explains why you curse in Spanish under your breath when working on a really big file."

Regina's eyes snapped up to meet Emma's, her head cocked. "What?"

"You mean you don't notice?" Emma's eyes danced with mirth.

"No?" She had much too much self-control for that.

"You totally do. It's kinda cute actually. But every time you pick up a huge file you start cursing softly. You have a filthy mouth when you want to."

"I am not anything near cute, Miss White. I am a grown woman. Cute does not apply to me. And I'm certain that you're mistaken about what you've overheard."

"Uh huh." Emma just smiled at her.

"How do you even know Spanish, Miss White?"

"One of my foster homes was in one of the barrios in New York City. I was young enough that I picked up the language pretty easily. A lot of the times it was just easier to use Spanish than English because a lot of the people there had just immigrated and hadn't quite gotten a handle on English yet." Emma shrugged. "Wasn't one of the worse foster homes and I got something out of it in the long run, so."

Regina nodded, accepting the answer.

A smirk appeared on Emma's face. "And of course the first thing you ever learn in any new language are the curse words. What fun would it be if you didn't? And trust me, I know exactly what you were saying."

"I'm not convinced that you aren't hearing things." Regina primly took another bite of her tamale hoping to stop conversation.

"Nope. I'll catch you doing it again just to prove it to you."

"Good luck in that endeavor, Miss White."

Emma laughed. "I don't need luck, I have skill."

Regina raked her eyes up and down the woman, eyes lingering on key places a few seconds longer than proper. "Yes, I'm sure you do."

That shut Emma up almost immediately and set her face to flaring red. Regina just smirked and set to eating the rest of her dinner.

After dinner Emma led her out of the restaurant and down the street to a little park. The sun was on the horizon, turning the sky blood red as they strolled down a path. Emma grabbed her hand early on, holding it gently, fingers intertwined with hers. Regina walked along in silence, amazed at just how easy this was. Here was a person she barely knew, and yet she felt more comfortable than she had in years with her. Regina's whole life was about trusting no one, but in this quiet moment with the breeze flowing gently around them, rustling the park trees she thought that perhaps maybe she just could trust Emma, maybe not right then, but soon. It was as terrifying as it was comforting. Trust meant the power to destroy. And oh god, did she already know what it felt like to be destroyed. She wanted nothing to do with that feeling ever again. And yet here she was, about to risk it all again. Could someone like her really do this?

Emma pulled them to a stop in front of a bench beside a fountain. The blonde dragged her down to sit, staring at the dying light catching the water droplets as they fell, sending flashes of light dancing around the little clearing. Regina felt herself involuntarily scooting closer to the other woman. She told herself that it was only because it was starting to get just a little chilly, there was no other reason. Emma smiled over at her, extricating her hand from Regina's so she could wrap an arm around Regina's shoulders. Regina told herself it was only because she was slightly tired that she rested her head on the woman's shoulder. She inhaled and smelled orchids and smelled home. Why was it that everything about this woman seemed built to rid her of the homesickness she'd been feeling?

They stayed like that for a long while, until the last of the light died, just quietly wrapped around each other. Regina felt no need to breach the silence. It was comfortable, something that shouldn't be possible for two people who barely knew each other. But it was.

They stood up from the bench as it got truly dark and walked back towards their car. Emma pulled them to a stop just at the bumper of her bug. Regina turned and looked at her, eyebrow cocked

"I really don't want the date to end yet. There's a coffee shop around the corner that stays open really late. It's got this bookstore that joins right to it and it literally has everything and they have these archways made out of books. It's a really awesome place. And God, it smells like heaven in there, old books and coffee. You wanna go?"

"Well, if it smells like heaven how can I resist?" She smiled at Emma.

Emma practically jumped up and down and drug Regina down the street at a break neck pace. Regina found herself smiling even as her arm was almost ripped out of its socket. The blonde pulled them into a small hole in the wall coffee shop and Emma was right, it did smell divine. Regina inhaled deeply. But after a second Emma was pulling her forward again.

"Coffee is for later, you have to see the books first."

"I didn't take you for such a bibliophile, Emma."

Emma looked back over her shoulder. "Why, is it the blonde thing?" She stuck out her tongue. "No, I really do like books. Or I did when I was younger. Since I've gotten older I've had less time to read than I like, but I always sit down with a good book when I have the chance. But come on, Regina, this place has a fucking castle made out of books. A castle. Made out of old worn out copies of fairytales. Tell me that's not cool."

Emma looked so much younger to her, all lit up with energy talking about something that she was so passionate about. Regina wanted to capture the moment somehow, but there was just something she knew wouldn't come across right in a photo. It would lose something. So she settled for watching it unfold before her, all the while her fingers intertwined with Emma's like they had for most of the night.

They ducked through arches of books and wandered through cramped aisles filled with more books than Regina had ever seen in one place outside of a library. There were Christmas lights strung across some of the bookcases and through some of the arches, providing an ethereal glow to the story that made it seem like some sort of fantasy. Regina wondered how she had ever missed some place like this or how she hadn't at least heard of it. It was truly breath taking.

The two of them finally emerged in a bigger room with a large clearing in the middle. In the center of the clearing indeed sat a castle just about the size of some children's playground equipment. Emma bit her lip and looked at her with excited eyes to see what she thought.

"That is rather impressive," Regina said after a moment.

"Best part is you can actually go up in it. There are a few bean bags up there so you can hang out reading if you want."

Emma took off, running up the stairs made out of books and looking back over her shoulder, seeing if Regina was following. And Regina did follow at a more sedate pace up the stairs. When she got there Emma was already flopped in one of the bean bags. She patted one right next to her when Regina entered. Regina eyed the little bag skeptically but walked over and sat down anyway.

Emma giggled. "You're trying to sit all prim and proper in a bean bag chair, Regina."

"Yes? It's imperative to have good posture."

"I don't exactly think these things were meant for good posture."

"I'll be a pioneer then."

Emma snorted, shooting her a fond look. "Whatever you want to do." She slumped down farther in the bag, splaying her limbs out carelessly, hitting Regina lightly in the stomach with one of her hands.

Regina looked over at Emma and then down at the offending limb. She just rolled her eyes and grabbed her hand, relacing their fingers together once again.

"You're more like a small child than a grown woman, dear."

"Oh, I can be a grown woman when I want to." She shot Regina a significant look at that but then continued. "But sometimes the last thing you need to be is an adult."

Emma scrabbled around for a second before successfully grabbing up a book from one of the random piles that seemed to be strewn throughout the small space. She held it up triumphantly and sunk back down into her chair. Regina looked at the cover and almost snorted.

"_Undercover Lover_, dear, really?"

"Ok, so maybe not my best find in this store, but hey, it was in reach." Emma turned the book so she could look at the cover as well. She started laughing. "Ok, this one's even worse than most romance covers. What spy in his right god damn mind would actually wear that?"

Regina held back a fit of laughter with little success. What spy, indeed. The man on the cover was wearing a rather garish outfit obviously supposed to be modeled after something James Bond would wear, but failing miserably as there was rather a lot less of it than there should be. He and woman he was holding were backed into a corner, the woman in front and the man looking over the woman's shoulder and pointing a gun at some rather cliché villain.

"Who actually names a book _Undercover Lover_? It sounds like the name of a bad porno," Regina said.

"Oh god, I think I've probably watched a porno with the same name before."

Regina looked over at Emma and shook her head. She grabbed the book out of Emma's hand and tossed it away. "I rather think that's enough of spies for one night, don't you?" The irony there didn't escape her.

"I do, especially since I get you and Mr. Undercover Lover doesn't."

Regina felt herself blushing. She couldn't quite figure out how to respond, but thankfully Emma saved her.

"Why don't we go grab that coffee I promised you?" Emma hoisted herself out of the bean bag chair. "I promise, it's the best coffee you'll have outside of Europe."

Regina hoisted herself out of the chair as well. When she stood she was a mere inch away from Emma. They both froze for a second, eyes darting down to the others lips. Regina took a step back after a few seconds, breaking the moment.

"That sounds like a good idea, Emma. I'm rather inclined to believe your food reviews after dinner, so let's hope you don't disappoint."

Emma grabbed her hand and led her down the stairs of the castle and back to the coffee shop.

Three hours, two lattes, and many interesting conversations later they stood together in front of Regina's apartment door. Regina had pretended to be offended at Emma's insistence that she be walked to her door safely, but was secretly pleased. Now they stood together only a few inches apart, conversation starting to taper off as the tension between the two of them started to ratchet up. Emma's eyes kept darting down to her lips before shooting back up to her eyes. Regina would be lying if she wasn't doing the exact same thing.

Finally, she threw all caution to the wind during yet another long silence and stepped forward. She felt Emma's relieved breath against her face as the woman took her own step forward. They were breathing each other's air now. Regina smelled orchids heavily around her. Her eyes fluttered closed and she started to lean forward just that little extra inch. Soft lips met her halfway and she sighed. Her arms slowly came to encircle Emma's neck as Emma's hands found their way to her waist. They pulled one another closer as the kiss got deeper, adding tongue as they slowly tasted each other.

When they broke apart a short eternity later, both of them were smiling like fools, skin still sparking from the contact and the sparks that seemed to fly every time they kissed. Emma brought her hand up to brush a piece of Regina's hair behind her ear as she smiled tenderly. Regina leaned her forehead forward onto Emma's, arms falling to Emma's back and drawling her in closer. Emma's head nestled in her neck, arms circling tighter around Regina's waist. Regina felt so safe like this. She shouldn't. There were so many ways to kill a person like this. But all that filled her was a warmth that she hadn't ever felt before.

Emma laid a gentle kiss on her neck before she pulled back. She looked into Regina's eyes. A flicker of fear cross the blonde's eyes.

"So, am I worthy of a second date?"

Regina leaned forward and kissed Emma's lips gently. "You're worthy of as many dates as you want."

Emma's smile was brighter than it had been all night. "Good." She sighed and stepped back. Regina caught the movement Emma made almost immediately to step back into her arms, but Emma stopped herself. "So, I'll text you. Probably embarrassingly soon. I'm not sure that whole wait three days shit is going to fly. I'm not even sure if waiting three hours is possible at this point."

Regina's smile was warm as she stepped forward to whisper in Emma's ear. "Maybe I don't want you to wait."

And with that, she unlocked her door and stepped through to her apartment, leaving a stunned Emma White on her doorstep.


	7. 7: I Should've Known You Were a Biter

Emma stared at the closed door of Regina's apartment. Hot. Damn. What had just happened to her? She managed to shut her mouth and shake herself out of her stupor. Regina Mills was going to be the death of her, of that she was sure.

She managed to get herself to turn around and walk towards the Bug. Whatever it was that just happened, she was pretty sure that was the best date she'd ever had in her life. So good that she wanted to go out again like the next day. But that was a little much. Probably. Maybe. Maybe it would be cool too. She wondered what Regina would think. Then again she didn't want Regina to get tired of her. Maybe she should wait. But she didn't want to wait. Oh God she was already starting to go insane.

Instead she pulled her phone out of her pocket as she opened the door to the Bug and brought up her messages as she slumped into the driver's seat. She quickly typed out a text to Regina.

_Was this a long enough wait?_

**Too long.**

Emma smiled down at her phone.

_Sorry to keep you waiting, your majesty._

**See that it doesn't happen again.**

_But I have to drive home and I can't do that while texting you._

**Fair point, I suppose I can be patient enough to wait for you to get safely home.**

_Good. I'll be sure to text you right as I get in my driveway._

**Good. Have a safe drive, Emma.**

Emma sighed, happy, before flinging her phone in the passenger's seat and starting the Bug. She quickly made her way through the streets. Traffic was at a minimum this late at night. It had taken her thirty minutes earlier in the day to drive to Regina's from her place but now it took barely ten. As soon as she shifted into park she grabbed her phone and texted Regina once more.

_Home and now completely at your service, your majesty._

**Almost completely at my service. If you were completely at my service you'd be here waiting hand and foot on me.**

Emma snorted. _The fake royal title is really inflating your head isn't it?_

**Who said it was fake?**

_I see no tiara on your head._

**That would be too obvious, dear. I'm trying to blend in with the common people. One does not wear a tiara when blending in.**

_Right, of course, and I'm part of your blending in am I?_

**You're a perk of blending in, dear. Noblemen are entirely too pompous and noblewomen completely vapid. I much prefer you.**

_Feels good to have the favor of royalty. ;)_

**Oh, you will have more than that in due time.**

_Why do I have a feeling that was an innuendo, your majesty?_

**Because you're perceptive, dear.**

Emma smiled and finally managed to get out of the car. She kept her phone within hand's reach at all times as the texts flew back and forth. She managed to get ready for bed slowly, texting all the while. She even resorted to putting her phone in a plastic bag so she could take it in the shower with her. Emma recognized that this was all completely ridiculous, but she really didn't care. What she did care about was that plastic bags made it really damn hard to type accurately. She sent off a string of texts with more spelling errors than humanly possible and tried not to feel too embarrassed when Regina called her out on it. She still refused to explain why she was spelling so atrociously, though. That would have been even worse.

Just as Emma managed to lay down in her bed Regina sent her a message that made her smile widely.

**Emma, would you be averse to going out again on Sunday? This time I'll do all the planning since you did everything this time.**

_That sounds great, Regina. Just let me know what time I need to be ready and everything._

**I will, once I figure out what it is exactly that we are doing. I have a few ideas but nothing concrete.**

_Take your time, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great :)_

**Thank you dear. I do have quite a lot to live up to from this date, however.**

Emma felt her cheeks heating up. _Aw, it was just dinner, nothing special. It's not like I took you to the moon or anything._

**This date was special, Emma. Don't sell it sort. I had a wonderful time.**

_So did I, but I think that was due to the company more than anything else._

**That was definitely a big part of it. No one else I know would take a date to a castle made of books, however, and that was rather amazing.**

Emma bit her lip contemplating her next response. _The castle has nothing on you._

**Well of course, the castle should not overshadow the Queen and her most loyal knight.**

_So I'm your knight now?_

**Of course, dear.**

Emma kept texting Regina, the spaces between her responses getting longer and longer as she kept drifting off to sleep and then jerking awake to respond. She finally fell to sleep once and for all with her phone still gripped in her hand, thumb poised to type yet another letter. She dreamed of Regina in medieval queen dresses and herself in muted grey armor, sweeping up and down halls cast in torch light, ruling together easily, and damn if Emma didn't wish those dresses were real.

She woke up in the early afternoon and stretched, groaning as her spine cracked a few times. Emma rolled over and grabbed her phone from the far side of the bed, where it had somehow managed to end up. She hit the button to wake it up and saw she had five texts from Regina.

**Did you finally fall asleep?**

**Goodnight, Emma.**

**Good morning.**

**I think I know what we're doing tomorrow. Tell me, have you ever ridden a horse before?**

**It's unseemly for a knight to sleep in so long, Miss White.**

Emma snorted at that last message and quickly typed out a reply. _Just because you can still wake up in the morning after going to bed at three AM doesn't mean we all can. But good morning. And yeah, I've ridden before. I'm not exactly fond of horses. Or more they're not exactly fond of me. For some reason I have a better time with camels. Don't ask me why, it doesn't make any sense._

The response from Regina was almost instant, almost as if she had been sitting by the phone waiting for her to text back.

**No, by all accounts that doesn't make sense. Camels are such stubborn creatures.**

_Yeah, I know. Maybe they just sense the aura of a fellow stubborn creature._

**If that was true then I would have more luck with them.**

Emma snorted. _Maybe._

**But if you really don't like horses than I can change the plans I had for tomorrow.**

_No, it's cool. As long as you're there I really don't care what we do. Though the second I get bitten by a horse I'm going to curse like a sailor, just a warning._

**What do you do to get yourself bitten?**

_Beats me. Probably something rather stupid that most people who know how to act around horses don't do._

**I'll point it out to you if I notice. I don't want the horse to bite you before I can.**

Emma felt a wave of heat wash over her at the image. God, Regina biting her would just be so damn hot. And her biting Regina? Even fucking better.

_I wouldn't be bitching about you biting me. Though maybe probably still cursing, just in a totally different context._

**Mmm, well. That sounds much more pleasant for the both of us.**

_Much, much more. Should've known you were a biter. _

**What does that mean, Miss White?**

_You're a tad feisty, don't worry totally hot._

**Well, I'm glad you approve. **

Emma could practically hear the eye roll in that text message. Another came before she could type a response.

**But you have no idea of how feisty I can really be. Perhaps you'll find out tomorrow.**

Her mouth went dry. Did that text message mean what she thought it did? Oh fucking hell, she hoped it did.

**Now I have to go make plans for our date. I'll pick you up tomorrow at noon so long as you text me your address. **

Emma quickly typed her address in and sent it, but her phone remained silent ever after. She huffed. God, the day was going to drag now. If Regina was going to go on radio silence she had absolutely nothing to stop her from thinking about everything that just been brought up in their conversation. Images of Regina naked flashed up behind her eyelids.

God. It really was going to be a long day.

Somehow Emma had made it through Saturday. She figured that she had to have superhuman patience for that feat. Or was just very good at distracting herself. With her hand in her pants. Whatever, patience was patience.

Now she was standing in her foyer, in clothes that were fit for riding but she was sure still made her look fabulous. Thank God jeans were good for riding. Skinny jeans made her ass look fucking awesome. The simple t-shirt she was wearing pulled incredibly tight over her boobs, she thanked God that she'd accidently grabbed the wrong size at the store when she'd bought it. She was dressed as well as the situation allowed.

Emma felt herself perk up every single freaking time that a car passed her house. She felt a little pathetic, like a puppy waiting for its owner to come home, but that didn't stop her from doing it every time. When a car slowed just outside her house she raced to the window and surely enough there was the brunette in the front seat of a black Mercedes Benz SL Class. God damn, how did the woman afford a car like that on a government salary? Fuck was that car was hot, though.

Regina got out of her car and started to walk up the sidewalk towards Emma's house. Emma panicked. Oh god, she was going to seem way too eager standing down here in the foyer waiting, but it would look even stupider if she ran away and Regina caught a glimpse of her retreating down the hall.

Oh, fuck this.

Emma opened the door and smiled at the brunette. The breath left her as she really took in what the other woman was wearing. Regina's legs were incased in honest to god jodhpurs that looked like they should be cutting off circulation they were that tight, and leather boots that came up to her knees. A white button up was tucked into her riding pants, with three buttons undone, showing just the right amount of cleavage. Her eyes finally made it to Regina's face just as the other woman stepped up onto her porch. Her face had very little make up on it, making her look younger.

She stepped forward. "Hey."

Regina smiled at her. "Hello, Emma." Regina took another step towards her. "Impatient, I see. Couldn't let me even ring your door bell?"

"Nope. Maybe next time I'll summon up some restraint, but not if you're dressed like that again." Her eyes flicked up and down Regina's form yet again. She unconsciously licked her lips.

Regina reached out and grabbed her belt loops, pulling her forward. "Yes, well, I find that I'm quite fond of these skinny jeans that you seem to have a habit of wearing."

"Well, I'm glad, I put them on just for you." Emma sounded more than a little breathless. She swallowed hard and leaned just a little forward and kissed Regina lightly. She felt Regina sigh and wrap her arms around Emma's waist.

"Now, that it the proper way to greet someone, Miss White," Regina said after she'd pulled back. "Grab your things though, dear, we have places to be."

"I'm sure the horses can wait a few minutes." Emma leaned in to steal another kiss, but Regina's hand stopped her.

"The horses are only one part of our plans today, dear. And to get to those on time we have to hurry along."

Emma huffed, but stepped back and grabbed her wallet and keys, locking up her house quickly. She turned back around and looked at Regina.

"Lead the way, your majesty."

Regina just smirked and turned, swaying her hips absolutely more than was necessary. God, the woman was really trying to kill her. They both slipped into Regina's car. Emma looked over the controls with a sense of awe. She really did love cars and this one was so fancy, top of the line package, recent model, looked to be the SL65 model of the car. God, what she would give to get behind the wheel of this thing. She bet it did 0 to 60 in like four seconds. It would put her little bug to shame.

"You're staring at my car like it's an attractive woman." Regina sounded extremely amused.

"I said I like vintage cars, right? Well, it's more just I have a thing for cars. And no fucking wonder you like your Benz more than my Bug. This is like a piece of fucking art."

Regina actually laughed. "Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but I do have my own appreciation of a fine car." She started the car, the engine purred quietly, but Emma could feel the power of it through the floorboards. "But I might become jealous of an inanimate object soon if you don't stop staring."

Emma snapped out of it and looked up at Regina. "Car still has nothing on you. Pretty much nothing has nothing on you. Even if I stare at it excessively. Just never get me around older model sports cars. You'll never ever be able to drag me away unless there's promise of sex. Or if I get hungry. Whatever comes first."

"In that case, you would be, dear."

Emma's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "Uh, um, yeah."

Regina smirked over at her before she gunned the car and peeled out into the street. Emma felt herself being pushed back into the seat and smiled. Oh yeah, this car had the get up and go she thought it did. A thought idly crossed her mind. She wondered what it would be like to fuck Regina in this car. She shivered as her body heated up exponentially in just a fraction of a second. She really didn't need those images.

"So where's this stable you're taking me to?" Emma asked mostly just to distract herself from how hot it would be to have Regina straddling her.

"It's about forty-five minutes from here, maybe a little more depending on traffic."

"Ah, so it's really outside of town, then."

Regina hummed her agreement. "It's right outside one of the smaller suburbs, on the outskirts of the metropolitan area. Far enough away that it actually smells of fresh air. That's why I picked it."

"I think I might be allergic to fresh air." Emma laughed. "I've almost always been in a city my entire life."

"That's a shame, dear. I like the peace of being in the forest."

"Too quiet. I always feel like something is going to jump out and grab me."

"You watch too many horror movies."

Emma had to stop herself from laughing. Oh, if only the woman knew that her life was more like one of those horror movies sometimes than should be allowed.

"Nah, just take anyone who's grown up in a city out to the country. We all think something is wrong when it's quiet."

"I'll take your word for it, dear." Regina shook her head fondly.

As they drove the buildings around them started to thin out, the trees started to thicken, billboards less frequent. Emma was always surprised how quickly things transitioned from city to rural. It was almost like a line was drawn somewhere that just denoted that civilization stopped there. A few houses were scattered, and then passed through little towns, but that was nothing like the sprawl of D.C. that just stopped miles ago.

Regina turned off onto a gravel road sometime later. The car handled perfectly even on the rough surface. Emma barely felt the bumps. God, she really, really wanted behind the wheel of this car.

They pulled into a parking lot and Regina popped out of the car with a smile on her face. Emma followed and was immediately assaulted with the smell of hay and horse. A hint of pine was in there somewhere and Emma tried not to flinch at the memories of being trapped in a pine forest in Belarus for days on end. Not one of her more pleasant memories.

She walked up to Regina who had stopped to wait for her. The smile on the woman's face was more open than she'd ever seen before. Emma's hand reached out of its own volition and grabbed Regina's interlacing their fingers automatically.

"Ready to ride?" Regina asked.

"I suppose. As long as you keep your promise to point out whatever it is that I'm doing to get bitten."

Regina reached up and tugged on one of Emma's curls. "I would think that's obvious." Her smile morphed into a smirk and she pulled Emma towards the stable door.

She led them through the aisle of the stables, coming to a seemingly random door and stopping. A girl, wearing a polo with the emblem of the stables called hi to Regina as she walked by and Regina smiled at the girl. Regina clicked her tongue and suddenly a horse was poking it's head over the stall door.

"Hello there, Atlas." Regina stroked the horse's nose gently.

Emma just stared at the horse. God, she'd seen horses before, but this one was just so _big_. She wasn't even sure it was possible to get on him.

Regina smiled over at her. "He's big, but he's a big baby. A few nose rubs and he's putty in your hands, aren't you?" She looked back at the horse.

Emma stepped forward hesitantly and reached out, gently petting his nose like Regina was. The horse whickered softly, pleased. She felt a small smile creep onto her face.

"Well, he hasn't bitten me yet."

Regina snorted. "If you got this horse to bite you then there would be something seriously wrong. Or you were being an idiot and not holding your hand flat while giving him a treat."

Emma looked over at Regina, who was still focused on the horse. "That's a thing?"

Regina's head snapped around to look at her, seeing if she was being completely serious. "Of course it is, dear. Has that been how you've been getting bitten?"

"Um, yeah." Emma fought the blush that was creeping up her neck, but she was losing quickly.

Regina hit her with her hip, knocking Emma off balance. She stumbled but managed to catch herself before she completely humiliated herself.

"That's the first thing they teach you, dear, when dealing with horses. Someone wasn't listening their first lesson, were they?"

"Who said there were lessons?"

Regina just looked at her.

"Ok, so maybe I spaced out while my friend was talking to me, so sue me." Or really, she hadn't been too fluent in the language that the guy who'd given her the horse on one of her first missions so she could out run the idiots chasing her for the file she'd stolen. She'd only caught enough to know the basic gist of how to get on and get the horse to go before she'd taken off. That had been a ride to remember.

"Well dear, now you know, so you can stop getting bitten by things that aren't me."

"You talk big game, but I've yet to see it."

The smile on Regina's face was positively devilish. "Because we're in public, dear. No need to scar the horses."

Emma took a deep breath. Dead. She should probably be dead. Or at least a puddle of goo.

Regina stepped back after giving the horse one final scratch. "I'll be back in just a second with a saddle for this guy. We'll get him all suited up and then I'll introduce you to the horse I'll be riding."

Emma watched almost helplessly as Regina walked off. God damn, her ass in those pants was even better than normal. Yup. Her heart had stopped she was sure of it.

Regina returned a few minutes later holding a saddle, reins, and a blanket. She handed them to Emma as she opened the stall door. Regina stepped inside the stall, edging around the huge horse, stroking his neck.

"Come on, Miss White, don't just stand there."

Emma stepped around the horse and the stall door shut gently behind her. She walked to Regina's side. Regina grabbed the blanket from Emma and threw it over the horse's back, adjusting it carefully. Next she grabbed the saddle and threw it over the horse's back.

"You're just a little too tall to make this easy, aren't you Atlas?" Regina mumbled to the horse.

She walked around the horse, keeping a hand trailing on his coat, letting him know she was there. Regina tugged the straps down so they hung down the horse's sides. She grabbed for the other side hanging near Emma's leg and soon she had the saddle cinched up easily.

"Come on, now Atlas, don't stick out your belly like that." She patted him on the stomach and immediately the horse snorted but complied. Regina smiled and pulled the strap another notch tighter. She carefully checked over everything once before circling around again. She quickly slipped the bit in the horse's mouth and pulled the reins over his head.

"He should be all set." Regina stepped back and bumped her hip into Emma's.

"Uh, how exactly do you think I'm going to get on this behemoth of a horse?" Emma asked. The stirrups were at like hip level on her. She was flexible, but not that flexible.

"There are stairs around here somewhere." Regina smiled at her. "Just think dear, he could be bigger. He's a Clydesdale crossbreed. His father was almost nineteen hands."

"That literally means nothing to me."

"Imagine him eight inches taller and probably about four hundred pounds heavier."

"Jesus Christ."

"Mhm." Regina opened the stall door again. "Now come on, dear, we still have to saddle my horse." She grabbed the horse's harness and led him forward easily.

Emma scrambled to catch up, not wanting to be anywhere near behind the horse. She planned on living today, not being kicked in the head. Regina led them down to another wing of the barn and stopped at yet another stall.

"I'll be right back." Regina slipped off again, leaving Emma with Atlas. Now that he was out of his stall he made Emma just a little nervous. He was a freaking huge horse. He could totally squish her like a bug if he wanted. Instead, he butted his head against her hand and whickered softly when she started to scratch his nose again. She relaxed a little after that.

Regina came back and saddled her own horse, not asking Emma for help. Emma looked on, surveying the all black horse with better hair than she had. She could swear the thing was glaring at her.

The other woman opened the stall door and led the horse out, smiling at Emma. "We'll find a set of stairs for you and then we'll be off. I know the best trail around here, not super crowded, but it'll be easy enough for you to keep up."

Emma just kept looking at Regina's horse. "I think that thing wants to kill me."

"He might." Regina smirked at her when she took a step back. "But no, he's a wonderful horse. A tad bit temperamental if you don't know what you're doing, but that suits me just fine. Doesn't it?" She stroked the horse's neck. The horse neighed his confirmation.

"Whatever you say, Regina."

Regina just shook her head and started to lead her horse away. Emma grabbed the harness of Atlas and they followed. They found a set of stairs about halfway towards the exit and Regina helped Emma on carefully. She looked around the stable from the back of her horse. Holy hell, she was high up. This was totally different than her almost pony that she'd had all those years ago.

Regina swung up on Quixote and turned to look over her shoulder at Emma. "Ready?"

"After I get over the altitude sickness." Regina sitting on her horse was at least half a foot lower than she was.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Miss White." Regina clicked her tongue and Quixote started walking.

Emma nudged Atlas in the side and he ambled forward as well. Once they were clear of the stables Emma maneuvered her horse so that she was riding side by side with Regina. The other woman smiled up at her, more relaxed than Emma had seen her.

"You really like riding, don't you?" Emma asked.

"I do. My mother signed me up for lessons when I was small because it was a useful skill and I ended up loving it. I might have ended up competing professionally if my mother hadn't had other plans for me."

"Your mother's plans were to have you become a CIA analyst?" Emma looked over at her, eyebrows scrunched.

"Yes and no. She wanted me to be in government, but I imagine this wasn't where she thought I would end up. I imagine she wanted me to become a congresswoman or senator. She died when I was eighteen, though, so I was freer to choose my own pathway. Had she lived longer…well she wasn't a woman who took no for an answer, especially from her own daughter."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Regina."

Regina looked away at the trees they were slowly passing, horses rocking under them. "It's fine, Emma. It was a long time ago"

Well. She had just gone and killed the mood really, really fucking fast. How the hell was she supposed to recover from that? She let them ride on in silence for a few minutes as she tried to think of a way to dispel the heavy air that had settled over them. Regina for her part seemed too lost in her head now to try anything. Emma could hit herself. She just had to ask stupid fucking questions.

"So what's your favorite color?" Emma held back a groan. That's what she could come up with? Yes, she'd wooed women in at least twelve different languages, but of course she couldn't actually manage to impress the one woman who mattered for more than a one night stand. Of fucking course.

Regina just turned and looked at her, amusement overtaking the melancholy in her eyes. "Blue, royal blue to be more precise."

"Oh, wouldn't have pegged you for that."

"What did you actually think my favorite color was black?"

Emma shook her head. "Nah, red."

Regina snorted. "Why red?"

"Because you're, uh, a little temperamental."

"Totally an indicator for the love of the color red."

Emma blushed. "Don't ask me, it's just a connection in my head."

Regina's eyes swept up and down her. "Hm, and let me guess, your favorite color is…green."

Emma shook her head. "No, purple, well more like lavender. One of the houses I stayed at in the foster system was right beside a field of wild lavender. God, in the summer it smelled so fucking good there and it was always so pretty. I used to go there when I needed out of the house, which was a lot, so it became one of my favorite places." She smiled fondly at the memory. That house hadn't been one of the worst nor one of the best, but the lavender field had somehow made up for it.

"Oh," Regina said simply.

Emma shook her head and snapped out of it. "Yeah, I try to keep a little lavender plant with me in whatever place I'm staying at, but it's sort of hard. I really don't have a green thumb. Like at all. I'm lucky to keep a plant alive in summer."

"Now that, I can picture." Regina laughed. "You forget to water it, don't you?"

"Sometimes, other times I think I over water it. I really just can't win."

"Maybe I can give you a few tips. I quite enjoy gardening. When I was growing up I had my own apple tree. Just before I left home it produced so much fruit that literally our home was over flowing with apples. They're still the best apples I've ever had."

"No wonder you had apples every day at lunch."

Regina cocked an eyebrow. "You watched me at lunch?"

Emma's hand came to rub at the back of her neck. "Uh, yeah, I kinda watched you…like every chance I could get. Which sounds sort of creepy. And it kind of was, but Jesus, look at you. And there was just always something about you. So I kinda turned into a stalker, sort of, without meaning to."

Regina shot her an amused smile. "It's ok, dear. I may have snuck more than my fair share of glances at you. Though that may have been more so I could plot your death instead of admire your beauty."

"Gee, thanks."

"There's a thin line between love and hate, as they say."

Emma felt her eyes widen at the mention of love. Her mind was off like a rocket trying to dissect every single connotation of what Regina had just said. She shouldn't make a big deal out it, she knew, because that was the saying. There was no need to change the saying just to avoid saying the word love. That would be stupid. But still, her mind wouldn't listen.

"Yeah, there really is," Emma finally managed to say.

They rode for a good part of the day. By the time Regina suggested they take a break she was starving. When Regina turned Quixote off of the path between a few trees Emma wondered just where they were going until the trees opened up into a large clearing. In the middle sat a picnic blanket and basket. Emma's stomach grumbled its approval. Regina turned back to look at her, smiling widely.

"Regina, this is awesome."

"I'm glad you approve." She hopped off her horse and walked over to Emma. Emma carefully dismounted, and Regina caught her when she stumbled a little bit on her landing. She looked up into Regina's face, now very near hers. Regina was shooting her a fond glance and Emma didn't miss when her eyes slipped down to her lips.

Emma leaned forward and kissed the other woman gently. The hands that were already on her hips from catching her slipped around to her back and drew her in tighter. Emma was sure that she could get used to being kissed like this every single day of her life. Regina could do sinful things with her tongue.

When Regina pulled back some time later she said, "Why don't we eat, dear? If we don't stop now I'm afraid we won't ever get to the food."

Emma smirked, but didn't disagree. Regina led them over to the blanket and sank down gracefully. Emma joined her, albeit with much less grace. Regina started digging in the basket and pulling food and plates from inside.

"How did you manage to set this up?" Emma asked, eyeing the spread that Regina was laying out.

"I may have bribed one of the younger stable hands to come out here just before us and leave everything. He should be back just before dark to collect everything as well. Nice boy, great with the horses."

"Huh, talk about using your connections."

"Indeed." Regina handed Emma a sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap.

Emma fought the wrap off of the sandwich before taking a large bite. She moaned at the taste. This was not just a sandwich, it was a work of art. She chewed slowly before swallowing.

"What the hell is in this, it's fucking awesome."

Regina laughed. "Cracked pepper turkey, roasted red pepper mayo, spinach, and swiss cheese. I made them earlier today. I'm glad they pass your taste test."

"You _made _these? Jesus, woman, how the hell did you make a sandwich taste so damn good, witchcraft?"

"No, just good quality ingredients. I find that helps greatly."

Emma took another bite. "I think I might be in love."

Regina laughed and took a bite of her own sandwich. "I thought it was men's hearts that you were supposed to be able to win through their stomachs."

"It also applies to women if you're a damn good cook."

"Well, thank you, dear." A light blush coated Regina's cheeks.

"You are most certainly welcome."

Regina pushed forward another dish. "If you like the sandwich, you're going to love this." She took the top off the container and revealed a good sized mound of potato salad. She handed Emma a fork.

"Lord, woman, it's like you know all of my weaknesses." Emma stuck a fork in one of the potato chunks and brought it to her mouth. "Yup, no, I'm totally in love with your cooking skills." She took another bite of the potato salad.

"My cooking skills are flattered." Regina shuffled around for a minute before pulling a bottle of wine from the basket. She uncorked it quickly and poured two glasses, handing one to Emma.

Emma took a sip and sighed. "This is really nice." The trees rustled around them and the sun reflected off of Regina's eyes in just a way that her eyes looked golden instead of brown. It was a stunning transformation.

"It is."

Emma scooted closer to Regina, careful not to spill any of their food or wine. She leaned her head on the other woman's shoulder for a second before popping back up and shoving more food into her face. Regina's hand came to rest on her thigh for a second, squeezing gently before going back to helping the woman eat.

They ate talking quietly at times, but mostly staying silent, enjoying the scene around them. The horses grazed on the grass of the clearing, never straying far. The birds chirped from their perches and various other wildlife darted in and out of the trees. She had never really just sat like this in the woods. She'd almost always been out there for work and that really hadn't left the time to just sit and appreciate everything. She loved the city, but this was nice too when she wasn't actively trying to avoid getting killed.

They finished up their food and repacked everything in the picnic basket. Emma now fully leaned her head on Regina's shoulder, closing her eyes. The heat coming off the other woman was soothing. She felt like she could just take a nap here now that she was fed. Her Sundays usually didn't involve her being out of bed before noon, let alone horseback riding. She could probably use a nap.

Regina laid her head on top of Emma's and sighed, content. Her arms encircled the blonde and leaned them both back onto the blanket. Emma snuggled into the other woman further now that they were laying down. Her eyes blinked open and she looked up at Regina. Regina was looking down at her, a slight smile on her face. Emma returned her smile and leaned forward slightly.

Their lips met again, lazily, unhurried. The sun beat down on them, warming them, as the wind blew gently, caressing their skin. Emma slipped an arm around the other woman's waist and smiled into their kiss. This, oh this, was worth all those years of hell to get to this point. Regina's hands migrated up her body and tangled themselves in her hair. The gentle tug every now and then shot bolts of arousal straight to her core, yet she kept the kiss still languid. She wanted to enjoy this for as long as she could.

Regina tangled one of her legs with Emma's and turned over so she could kiss Emma more easily. A sigh escaped her. She knew this was going to escalate soon. She probably shouldn't do this in the middle of the forest with the most important person she'd met to date, but she couldn't force herself to draw away either and tell Regina she wanted to wait until they had gotten back home to finish this. It was suddenly as if Regina had replaced all of the oxygen in her lungs and she was going to die if she drew away from this.

They broke the kiss, pulling away to catch their breath. Emma panted, forehead resting against Regina's for a few seconds before she attached her lips to Regina's neck. Regina groaned under her and titled her neck to the side to allow Emma more access. She kissed down the long column of tan skin, nipping lightly and licking to soothe the sting. She didn't bite hard enough to mark, but oh the thought of marking Regina as her own turned her on immensely.

Regina's hands wandered up and down her body, unabashedly. Her fingers trailed reverently over the plains of her stomach and back. Emma gasped at the feeling of fingernails raking down her back through fabric. Regina took advantage of Emma's momentary distraction to latch her own lips onto Emma's neck.

If Emma had thought that Regina was a good kisser before, when she felt the other woman's lips kissing and licking up and down her neck, she about died. Regina kissed down to her collarbone and drew her t-shirt aside. She bit down hard on the skin, but instantly licking to soothe. Emma arched into her mouth. God, she felt like she was on fire right now in the best fucking way.

She pulled Regina's head back up to her and kissed her hard. This kiss was all teeth and tongues and none of the gentleness from before, both of them were too far gone now for that. Regina tasted like the wine they'd just drank and sunshine. It was far more intoxicating than the alcohol they'd just drunk. She couldn't get enough. And the way Regina was holding onto her she couldn't either.

Regina's hand fell to the hem of her t-shirt and tugged it up. Emma pulled back and looked at the other woman.

"You sure?"

"Shut up, Miss White, and get that God forsaken t-shirt off of you." Regina's eyes were blown wide in lust.

"I'll take that as a yes." Emma chuckled, sat up and stripped her t-shirt off, throwing it on the other end of the blanket.


	8. 8: Rode Hard and Put Away Wet

"_You sure?"_

"_Shut up, Miss White, and get that god forsaken t-shirt off of you." Regina's eyes were blown wide in lust. _

"_I'll take that as a yes." Emma chuckled, sat up and stripped her t-shirt off, throwing it on the other end of the blanket. _

Immediately Emma went to work, pulling Regina's shirt out of her pants and attacking the buttons. The little fuckers did not want to cooperate but she knew Regina would kill her if she ripped the buttons off. They had places to be seen after this. So she suffered through every single little button until Regina was lying with a perfect expanse of tan skin exposed to her.

She lowered herself down again to kiss Regina. They both moaned quietly at the feeling of so much skin to skin contact. Regina's fingertips skated over her lower back and she shivered hard. Regina's hands froze and skated back across the skin they'd just traveled over. Emma tried to hold back another shiver, but failed. Regina pulled back from the kiss and smiled evilly at Emma, fingers still tracing nonsensical designs on the skin of her lower back.

"So very sensitive there, aren't we, Miss White?" She dove in and latched onto Emma's collarbone again, nipping at the bruise she'd already created, causing Emma to moan loudly, before moving on.

"I'm sure you have some place similar, your majesty, I just have to find it," Emma gasped out.

She felt Regina smirk against her skin. Her hands came up and cupped Emma's breasts, thumbs sweeping over already hardened nipples through the fabric. Emma took in a shaky breath. Dear god, this woman was good.

With a light squeeze, Regina's hands were skimming along the bottom of her bra until they found the clasp. A quick flick of her wrists and she drug the offending piece of fabric off of Emma and flung somewhere in the grass surrounding them. The woman pulled back and smiled at Emma once more before flipping them so Emma was pinned beneath her. The sight of Regina above her grinning, with an almost feral glint in her eyes, looking like she was about to eat Emma alive was literally the hottest thing Emma had ever seen. The amount of wetness that was now coating her panties was sure to ruin them. She had no fucking regrets.

Regina reached around and undid her own bra with one hand, keeping eye contact with Emma. She was pretty damn sure that this was going to kill her. No woman had any right to be so damn sexy. Regina flung her shirt and bra in a pile on top of Emma's discarded t-shirt. The way the sun caught her light brown skin was breath taking. Emma wanted to run her tongue over every single inch and hear Regina gasp and moan and writhe beneath her.

But Regina beat her to the punch, lowering herself down and kissing everywhere, from her collar bones down to the line of her jeans, never staying anywhere long, just enough to leave the lightest of butterfly kisses and moving on. It was maddening. Emma wanted more, so much more.

As if Regina could sense her thoughts she made her way back up Emma's body once more and settled in, leaving open mouthed kisses all over Emma's breasts. Emma thought she was going to pass out, her breathing had become so quick and shallow, but there was no way that she could take any deeper breaths right then. When Regina finally latched onto one of her nipples she arched up into her mouth almost violently. The woman was playing her like some sort of god damn prodigy. She had never been so turned on in her life and they'd only gotten to second base.

Regina's tongue swirled around the hard bud and Emma found herself whimpering involuntarily. The brunette's hand came up and started to roll her other nipple between her fingers. Emma's whimpering continued and got louder. With a graze of teeth that sent electric sparks shooting straight to her core Regina let go of Emma's nipple with a pop and smirked up at her. God, if the smirk wasn't panty wetting on its own.

She leaned forward and kissed Emma hard. Emma just sat back and went for the ride. There was no way she had the mental power to drive and take control of the kiss back from Regina. The other woman situated herself on top of Emma and started to grind slowly. There were far too many sensations. Emma couldn't fucking take it. She wanted this to last forever, but God did she need Regina inside of her right this very second or she was going to fucking explode.

She pulled back from the kiss, shuddering. "Regina." It was a breathy moan. Emma couldn't manage to get anything else out, but Regina seemed to understand nonetheless.

Regina lifted herself off of Emma's leg and her hands immediately went to the button of her jeans. In a second it was popped and Regina was pulling down the zipper slowly. Emma swore that she could feel every single tooth of the zipper coming undone. She wanted to grab Regina's hands and yank the damn thing down, but she had a feeling that Regina wouldn't take kindly to that and go back to teasing her until she lost her damn mind.

She kissed Emma again as she inched her jeans down slowly. Emma lifted her hips high to help. Regina chuckled into her mouth before pulling back. She quickly pulled off her Converse followed by her jeans, leaving her only in her underwear. Emma could have cried when Regina's hand caressed her through her underwear.

"My, my, dear, someone is ready."

Emma didn't respond, couldn't respond, the little arcs of pleasure from Regina's fingers rubbing her were short circuiting everything. Oh god, she wanted her damn underwear off. She needed those fingers on her in the worst way.

Regina pulled aside her underwear and slipped her fingers up and down Emma's slit. Regina groaned at the wetness she found there. Emma felt another gush of wetness flow out of her at the sound. That was just fucking sinful. This woman was just liquid sex.

The brunette smirked up at her again and withdrew her fingers. Emma whined at the loss. God damn it she had been so close to actually having what she wanted. She immediately shut up when Regina took to licking her fingers, moaning at the taste of Emma on them. No. Emma was damn sure she was dead. Yup. Her body was hot enough that she ought to have immolated by now.

"Regina," she whimpered.

Regina finished licking her fingers before grabbing Emma's underwear and yanking them down to Emma's knees. Emma wiggled them the rest of the way down and kicked them off somewhere hopefully on the blanket. She felt Regina's eyes rake over her, hungry. It brought a whole new reality to the term eye fucking.

She crawled slowly up Emma's body and kissed her deeply as one of her hands trailed gently up the inside of Emma's thigh. Emma felt herself trembling. She needed this so badly she was sure that one touch from Regina and she was going to go off like a rocket.

Long fingers trailed through her wetness, avoiding the most sensitive of places, but it still had Emma a blubbering mess. She needed to come. It was taking over her whole being.

Regina's fingers found her clit and if Regina hadn't been on top of her, Emma was sure she would have arched so far off of the blanket she might have broken her back. Quickly Regina's fingers started to circle around Emma's clit with just the barest pressure. Emma could already feel her orgasm building. Just a little more, oh God, just a little more.

And suddenly Regina's fingers were inside of her and she was letting out the loudest moan she had ever produced. Her vocal chords fucking hurt, that's how loud she was. Regina looked up from the spot on her neck that she had settled into just to make sure she was ok before nestling back and starting to kiss and lick again. Her fingers started to thrust in and out of Emma slowly. Emma felt her body thrusting down to meet every movement without her conscious consent. She wasn't in control anymore. She was fine with that as the heat in her lower back started to concentrated down and down and down into a tiny pinprick. So close.

Regina added her thigh behind her thrust, adding more power to each stroke. She didn't think she'd ever stop moaning now. A slight adjustment and Regina's hand was hitting her clit every few strokes and that pinprick of heat just kept getting smaller and smaller. A brush over the rough spot in her walls and she was gone in a burst of light. Pleasure filled every single atom of her being and God, orgasms were always good, but this one was beyond words.

She felt Regina's fingers gently helping her to ride out the orgasm and bring her down from her high. When the final tremor passed through her Regina withdrew her fingers. Emma's eyes and scrunched closed just as the orgasm had hit her, but she could hear Regina licking her fingers again and it was just fucking obscene. If she could feel literally any of her limbs she would be on top of the other woman paying back in kind. But that would have to wait a few minutes. Emma's limbs still felt like jello. She wasn't sure that they would ever feel normal again.

Her eyes fluttered open again a few minutes later. Regina just smiled down at her fondly. Emma reached up and pulled the other woman down on top of her.

"Hi," Regina said quietly.

"Hi," Emma replied, looking into dark brown eyes.

"I thought I had lost you there for a minute." Laughter laced the brunette's voice.

"I think I went to outer Siberia there for a second."

"Why outer Siberia?" Regina cocked an eyebrow, smiling.

"First place that came to mind." Emma shrugged.

"Uh huh."

"Oh shut up." Emma kissed her, arms sliding up around Regina's back and tracing the skin there, relishing the muscles jumping below her touch. Regina sighed and relaxed into her touch. They kissed like that for a while in the warm sun, breeze drying the thin sheen of sweat on their bodies. Emma finally managed to get back all of the feeling in her body and slowly the fire of lust rekindled in her body.

She flipped Regina back on the blanket and shot her a cocky smile when the woman looked up at her, offended.

"Contrary to popular belief, Miss White, I am not a bottom." Regina glared at her.

Emma in turn grabbed Regina's wrists in one hand and pinned her hands above her head. "I think you can make an exception in this case, your majesty." She kissed down the other woman's jaw. The gasp that she got when she kissed the area behind her ear had her pulling back triumphantly.

"And it looks like I just found your sensitive spot your majesty."

"You don't have to gloat, dear. It's a common erogenous zone."

Emma stuck out her tongue. "So are lower backs, but you didn't see me pulling that card, now did you."

Regina rolled her eyes. Emma leaned in to kiss the look right off of her face. This time she didn't let Regina have control of all the kisses. Regina wouldn't let her have full control, but she made sure to keep it on an even keel. God, she wondered just exactly what else a woman like this was capable of in the bedroom. She was going to find out, that was for damn sure.

Emma's hands drifted down the planes of Regina's stomach and to the hem of her jodhpurs. She hooked her fingers inside, making sure that Regina's panties were coming with them and pulled down. Regina gasped as the cool air hit her. Emma smiled and made quick work of the woman's riding boots and threw the pants so they draped over the picnic basket.

And God, if Emma didn't understand the look Regina had given her when she was bare on the blanket before her. Regina was perfect, all soft tan skin and beautiful full curves. Emma settled down again on Regina, still wet core pressing into the other woman's stomach. Emma caught the gasp in her mouth as she kissed her again. Her hands wandered down to play with hard, dusky nipples. She let her fingers circle around them gently for a minute before actually moving in and starting to pinch them and pull them. The sounds that Regina was making were delicious. They really seemed to make the kiss taste better. She wasn't sure she would ever get enough of this.

She kissed down to behind Regina's ear again and set to licking and kissing the skin there. It didn't take long until Regina was squirming beneath her. She pressed up into Emma, making Emma groan, long and low.

Emma sat up, looking down at the other woman. She had her eyes scrunched shut, arching up into Emma's hands, still on her breasts. Emma smirked before moving down the other woman's body. She settled herself between Regina's thighs. The smell of the other woman's arousal was heavenly. She wanted to bury herself inside the other woman, but she waited until Regina opened her eyes and looked down at her. Only then did she stick out her tongue and take the first long lick up Regina's slit. Immediately the other woman squinched her eyes shut and slammed her head back into the blanket.

Emma debated on stopping to make the woman look at her while she ate her out, but Emma didn't want to stop. She tasted so good and getting Regina off had become as important as her own orgasm had earlier. There was no stopping now.

She carefully explored every part of Regina. She had to secure the other woman's hips because it quickly became clear that the woman was going to keep wiggling if she didn't. Emma smiled and went back to exploring. She came to the other woman's clit last. She poked out just the tip of her tongue, flicking it a few times before leaning forward and licking wholeheartedly.

"Emma!" Regina screamed, and even Emma had trouble holding down her hips.

Emma smiled into her task and set about licking, flicking, and sucking the other woman. She could feel the other woman getting closer and closer under her. The muscles in her thighs next to her face were tensing and untensing rapidly. She just needed that last little bit to push her over the edge.

She plunged two fingers inside Regina and relished the scream the other woman let out. She paused only a second to let the other woman's body adjust before thrusting in at a punishing pace all the while still keeping up her rhythm licking her clit. Just a few thrusts and the world became so much quieter as Regina's thighs clamped around her head as the woman gushed all over Emma's face. Emma carefully licked up every little bit as Regina rode out her orgasm.

She crawled up Regina's body after her thighs released her death grip on her head. Regina's eyes blinked open after a few long seconds and Emma smiled down cockily at her.

"Welcome back, your majesty."

Regina just chuckled. "You're not very originally in your post-earthshattering-orgasm material."

"Nah, don't need to be."

"I suppose you really don't need to be." Regina snuggled into the crook of Emma's neck. Her arms wrapped around Emma and drew her down.

Emma buried her head in brown hair and inhaled deeply. Apples and lavender. It smelled like home.

They lay like that for a long while. Emma had to keep herself from drifting off. She was ridiculously tired and her body was still so very relaxed from her orgasm, but falling asleep naked in the middle of the forest probably wasn't exactly the best idea. Every now and again Regina would plant a gentle kiss on Emma's neck and that was the only way that Emma even knew that she was still awake. Below her the woman's breathing was slow and steady, almost like she'd fallen asleep, but obviously not.

She finally patted Emma's back, indicating that she wanted up. Emma obliged, falling on the blanket on the other side of her. Regina turned to look at her and smiled. Her hand came up and cupped Emma's cheek gently. She leaned forward and kissed her chastely.

"That was different," Emma said, resting her forehead against Regina's.

"It was. A very good kind of different."

"Yeah. This whole thing has been good different."

"I agree." Regina pulled back, her eyes tracing Emma's face carefully. "I'm not exactly sure what it means, however."

Emma shrugged. "We don't have to, not yet, anyway. It's only our second date."

Regina bit her lip. She thought for a long minute before nodding slowly. "Ok."

Emma leaned forward and kissed her again. "Ok."

Regina pulled her forward again, barely letting her breathe. This kiss was more desperate than any of the last few. Emma accepted it gratefully and tried to exude that everything would be fine. She didn't know how well she succeeded, but eventually the kiss morphed into something hot and desperate in a completely different way.

Regina rolled on top of her, grinding down onto Emma's stomach. Emma gasped at the feeling of Regina coating her stomach. An image of the woman grinding on top her until she came flashed up behind her eyelids and sent fire through her veins. Oh, what she would give for that.

Instead, she smiled up at Regina, the cocky smile firmly on her face again. "Round two?" she asked.

"Who said we were stopping at two?" Regina's eyes glinted mischievously.

"Dear fucking God, woman, you're going to kill me." Emma surged up and kissed her. "But what a fucking way to go."

"Quite literally, dear." And then Regina kissed her again and there wasn't a lot talking for a long time.

They slowly dressed again as the sun started sinking in the sky. Emma was sore in all the right damn places and so relaxed, it didn't even matter that she still had to somehow find a way back onto Atlas's back. Who the hell even thought it was a good idea to make horses so tall anyway? She'd figure something out whenever they did managed to get fully clothed again. It seemed that every time both of them would get one piece of clothing on again they'd start kissing and an inordinate amount of time would pass before the next item was put on. Not that Emma was complaining. Regina was a fucking great kisser.

When they finally managed to get their shoes on and stand up Regina smiled serenely over at her. "I think you'll need a boost to get back on Atlas."

"Just what I was thinking."

"Come on."

Regina grabbed her hand and led her over to Atlas. The horse lifted his head and snorted at them, almost like he was saying it was about time. Regina scratched his nose for a few seconds before walking forward. She bent over slightly, cupped her hands at knee level and looked expectantly at Emma. Emma eyed her skeptically.

"You really think this is gonna work?"

"I'm stronger than I look, Miss White."

Emma shrugged. "Alrighty then."

She stepped forward and put her foot in Regina's hands, grabbing on to Atlas's saddle. She pulled herself up easily, taking as much weight off of Regina as quickly as possible. When she was settled she looked back down at Regina smiling.

"Didn't think you'd have that much strength in your arms after fucking me to oblivion so many times."

Regina shot her a smirk before turning to walk to Quixote. "I'm full of surprises, Emma," she called over her shoulder.

"That I don't doubt," Emma mumbled mostly to herself.

Regina mounted Quixote and took off for the trees, clearly expecting Emma to follow. Emma kicked Atlas into action and followed behind her, leaving the clearing and the remnants of their picnic behind. Emma spurred Atlas into a trot once they broke from the trees back onto the trail so that she was side by side with Regina.

"So, how long do you think we missed that stable boy you paid to clean everything up by?"

Regina glanced up at the setting sun. "Oh, not long." An evil look came over her face. "Just think one more round and he would've gotten quite the eye full."

Emma laughed. "Sorry, but traumatizing kids isn't exactly on my to do list."

"I don't think he would have been traumatized. He's a teenage boy, it probably would have been a dream come true."

"Ok, it's a little traumatizing to _me_ to think about being masturbatory material for a teenager." Emma stuck out her tongue and made a face.

"Oh, but you do so well as masturbatory material, dear."

Emma's head whipped around. "What?"

Regina just looked over at her, a smirk on her face and an eyebrow cocked. "I said exactly what you thought I did, Miss White."

"When the hell did you have a fantasy about me?"

"There have been a few times, actually. I find the orgasms to be quite satisfying when I picture you going down on me. Now they'll be that much more vivid."

And oh God, if Emma wasn't ready to go again. Her crotch rubbing against the leather of the saddle was just a little bit torturous. It was going to be a very long ride back.

"Yeah, well, you don't do so bad yourself, your majesty."

"Good."

And with that Regina spurred her horse on faster. "Come on, Emma. We're going to have to ride a little faster to make it back to the stables before dark."

Atlas sped up under her without prompting. Emma tried to remember everything she'd learned years ago. It wasn't extremely hard to stay on, but Emma couldn't keep her mind on anything else but the moving horse beneath her until they reached the stables just as the sun was slipping below the horizon.

Emma helped Regina put away and brush down the horses. The musty smell of horse wasn't that bad once she was used to it again, but God was there a lot of horse to brush down. She felt like an idiot standing on steps to be able to brush down Atlas thoroughly. Regina showed up halfway through her brush down and just smiled at Emma. Or more accurately smiled at Emma's ass. Emma didn't mind at all.

When she hopped down and dragged the stairs out of Atlas's stall Regina handed her an apple. "See if you can keep a flat hand this time when you're giving him the apple, won't you dear?"

Emma rolled her eyes and took the apple. She put her hand out flat with the apple resting perfectly in the middle and offered it to Atlas. He sniffed at it for a second before taking the whole thing and munching on it happily. Emma scratched his nose once before exiting the stall and shutting the door.

"See, your majesty, I am capable of not being bitten."

Regina smiled at her. "I'm glad." She grabbed Emma's hand again and led them out of the stables, waving at a few employees on her way out.

They slipped into Regina's car and Regina pulled out of the parking lot.

"I almost feel bad getting into a car like this smelling like horse." Emma sniffed at the fabric of her blouse.

"Don't worry dear, I do it quite often."

"I'm not sure that makes me feeling better."

Regina rolled her eyes. Emma grabbed the hand that wasn't on the steering wheel and laced her fingers through it.

"I had a really good time today and I'm not just saying that because of the whole multiple orgasm thing. Though, that was totally a plus, I'm not going to lie."

Regina laughed and looked over at her for a long moment before glancing back at the road. "I'm glad you had a good time, Emma."

"I kinda don't want this to end just yet. I mean I know we've still got like at least a half an hour drive back, but like—"

"I know what you mean, Emma," Regina interrupted. She looked over at Emma again, biting her lip. "Perhaps you could come over and we could watch a movie?"

Emma smiled at her. "I'd like that."

"Good."

They drove the rest of the way back to Regina's house quietly. Emma drowsed in and out. Now that she wasn't moving around the toll the day had taken on her was asserting itself. Every time her head jerked up after she'd almost fallen asleep, Regina laughed. Emma was too tired to feel too terribly self-conscious. Anything that made Regina laugh wasn't too bad anyway.

When they finally got to Regina's apartment complex and they slipped out of the car the cool night air woke her up a little bit. She followed Regina inside, still yawning, though. Regina unlocked her door and stepped through. The cat was waiting for them at the door. He meowed loudly and stalked off towards the kitchen.

Emma laughed. "Someone is hungry."

Regina blushed in the muted light of the hall. "I suppose he would be. I'll go feed him. The living room is through there, make yourself comfortable. It's been quite a while since we ate anything, as well, do you want anything?"

"If you're offering to make me food I'll never turn that down."

Regina snorted. "I was thinking more along the lines of take out. I didn't have the luxury of drowsing in the car, but I find that someone wore me out today."

Emma smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. "Gee, I wonder who. But seriously, take out is fine. I'll literally eat anything."

"Pizza?"

"You speak my language."

"What do you like on it?"

"Anything except olives and anchovies."

"Half sausage, olive and pineapple and the other half without olive then?"

"God, no, you can't like olives."

"I do. They are quite delicious."

Emma groaned and put her head in her hands. "And here I thought you were the perfect woman." She looked up again smiling. "I suppose I can live with your predilection for those little black o's of doom though, because the rest of you is damn well perfect."

Regina shook her head and stepped forward and kissed her. Emma sighed and sunk into the other woman's arms. This was so easy and felt so right. She really hoped that this never ended even though she knew it had to eventually. She wondered if there was any way to retire from fieldwork, so that she could stay here in Langley and be with Regina and keep getting kissed like this. Oh, did she ever want that.

The brunette drew back. "Go, I'll call for the pizza and feed the cat. See if you find a movie you want to watch. If there's nothing in the DVDs there's always Netflix."

Emma smiled. "Ok."

She made her way to the room Regina had pointed to and sank down on the couch. She picked up the remote and navigated to Netflix. She flicked through Regina's suggested titles and almost laughed, stupid rom-coms and rather questionable comedies made up most of the selection, but there were a few action movies scattered throughout. Now she hadn't called that at all. She definitely thought she'd be a fan of the classics. Emma scrolled through and hit one of the action movies, waiting for Regina to come into the living room.

The other woman emerged later, having changed from her riding attire into yoga pants and a loose fitting t-shirt. It was totally unfair how the woman could make such a simple outfit look like she'd just stepped off the runway. At least she got to look at the woman who was such a piece of art with undisguised lust now.

Regina smirked and her before sinking down beside her. She looked at the title on screen and nodded her approval. She drew her feet up onto the couch and leaned into Emma's side. Emma wrapped an arm around her and settled in, sighing happily.

"The pizza will be here in about a half an hour."

"Awesome."

Regina hummed into Emma's shoulder. Emma hit the play button on the remote and the movie started. She didn't really concentrate on the images flashing on screen though, having Regina in her arms was too distracting. The pizza arrived, they ate all pressed up together, providing color commentary to the fight scene that was going on, on the screen the entire time. She actually got Regina to god damn giggle like a school girl and if she didn't think that that was the best accomplish of her month then she'd be damned.

They started another movie later, not even talking about Emma leaving. They just curled further into the couch with a cheesy rom-com playing this time. Emma fell asleep halfway through, arms still around Regina. When she woke up later, Regina was asleep with her head on Emma's chest and a smile on her face. The Netflix screen cast a red glow on the room. Emma reached for the remote carefully, flicking off the TV before settling back and closing her eyes. Oh, this was the life. Fuck the fact that she had to get up super early to go back to her own house and shower and change for work, this was so fucking worth it. She snuggled further down into the couch and Regina followed her, arms gripped around Emma tightly.

And when Regina woke her up in the middle of the night and dragged her back to her bedroom, shoving pjs at Emma with a grunt she didn't question it. She just changed quickly and slipped into bed, curling up around the other woman, smiling for all she was worth.


	9. 9: Love is a Gut Punch

Regina woke up and rolled over, coming face to face with a sea of bright gold hair. She shifted carefully, trying to get comfortable without waking the other woman. Emma's bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as her own, but she put up with it without complaint when they stayed here. The company was more than enough to make up for a subpar mattress.

She closed her eyes again and started to drift off. A lot had changed in the past few weeks, dating Emma White, and all of those changes were for the better, at least she thought. She'd pushed the fact that her imminent death and Emma's could be brought about by this particular bout of weakness. The risk was worth smooth pale skin and eyes that seemed to take in everything that she was and accepting even the darkest parts without question. She was happier than she ever remembered being, and that was really all that mattered to her right now.

Regina was pulled back to consciousness as a pair of arms wrapped around her. She hummed drowsily and opened her eyes. Emma was staring right back at her, a warm smile on her face.

"Good morning," Emma rasped, voice roughened with sleep.

"Morning, dear." Regina yawned and leaned forward to bury her head in Emma's neck. It had become one of her favorite places in the last few weeks. She felt safe there.

"Is it bad that I really just don't want to go to work today?" Emma asked, pulling Regina tighter to her.

"You say that every morning we wake up together on a work day, dear."

"That doesn't change that it's the truth."

Regina chuckled low in her throat. She felt Emma shiver underneath her and smiled. It hadn't taken long into their relationship for Emma to reveal that the low, throaty chuckle of Regina's turned her on. Regina made sure to do it as often as possible now, loving the other woman's reaction.

"And as we've gone over, dear, it's not a bad thing that you don't want to go into work. I find myself not looking forward to cubicle walls as my only view for eight hours."

"Yeah. I really don't want to walk around the fifth floor anymore. Gives me the creeps."

"The cryptologists have their own little world up there."

"You can say that again. Some of them are completely normal, but then you get the guys who just stare off into space and mumble about numbers and letters and I'm not entirely sure what to do with that. They're like, too brilliant for their own good."

Regina hummed her agreement. She pulled back just as the alarm started to go off. She frowned. She really didn't want to leave Emma's arms just yet, but the other woman set her alarm so Regina barely had enough time to get ready. She didn't quite understand how Emma managed to leave before her every single morning, but it happened, and Emma would just laugh and kiss her cheek, calling goodbye over her shoulder.

She sighed and pulled herself out of the embrace. Emma groaned but didn't say anything, sitting up and running her hands through her hair. Regina's eyes were immediately pulled to the woman's perky breasts as the sheet pooled around her waist. A pang of arousal shot through her, but she pushed it down. Chances were they would be seeing each other later tonight so she could take care of that urge then. If not, well it wasn't like she didn't know how to take care of herself, especially since Emma had the tendency to send her dirty text messages on the nights they spent apart.

Emma slipped from bed first and stretched languidly. Regina got up and hugged her from behind. Emma grabbed Regina's hands and squeezed.

"Shower together to save time?" Regina asked.

"Think you can actually manage to keep your hands to yourself?"

"As I recall the last time we had sex in the shower it was you who instigated it." Regina nipped at Emma's shoulder lightly.

"Yeah, but the last two times before that it was all you, your majesty."

"Mmm, well, I do have self-control, Miss White."

Emma turned around in her arms. "Yeah, for everything but me." But she pulled Regina towards the bathroom anyway.

Regina admired the other woman as she went about adjusting the shower spray to the right temperature. They'd had to compromise on the temperature of the water the first time they'd showered together. Regina liked showers so hot they were to the point of scalding while Emma preferred something much more lukewarm. They'd settled somewhere in the middle with only a little bribery on Regina's part.

Emma stepped under the spray and Regina followed quickly. A wet Emma White was sight that Regina couldn't get enough of. It was simply breathtaking how beautiful the other woman was with her hair plastered to her head and water streaming down her bare body.

Regina quickly shook herself out of those thoughts and ducked under the spray herself so she could wet her hair. They weren't here to fuck. If they did they'd surely be late to work and Regina wasn't about to ruin her perfect streak of being on time even if it was for all the right reasons.

Emma reached around her and grabbed the shampoo, laying a kiss just above her heart. Regina sighed at the contact. Emma's little touches set off a warm feeling in her body that she couldn't quite interpret just yet, but it was a wonderful feeling.

She stepped out from under the spray and grabbed the shampoo bottle from Emma's hands. They finished showering together quickly, with only a minimal amount of touching. Regina quickly wrapped a towel around her and set to work getting ready for the day, Emma right beside her. Yet again, while she was still styling her hair, Emma was getting ready to make her way out the door. She laughed when she peeked her head into the bathroom and saw Regina just putting the finishing touches on her hair, fluffing it out with her fingers so it looked just right.

Emma walked up to her and grabbed her around the waist, tracing the edge of the panties Regina had slipped on earlier. She kissed her on the cheek. "You'll lock up?"

"Of course, dear. The key is hidden in the gap between the second and third brick like always?"

"Never move it. You're really the only one who ever touches it, so." Emma smiled and kissed her again. She started to make her way out the door when she turned around once more to look at Regina. "We're on for lunch today right? Oh my god, does that one food truck come today?"

Regina smiled. "Of course we're on for lunch, and yes, so you can have your churros."

"Yes!"

Regina shook her head and rolled her eyes fondly. The blonde was such a small child sometimes.

"Anyway, have a good day at work." Emma started to walk out of the room.

"You too, dear," Regina called after her, picking up her foundation and setting to work on her makeup.

Work always drug when she knew she was going to see Emma later. She tried to bury herself in paperwork as much as possible, but there was only so much time that reports on suburban Oregon towns could hold her attention before her mind drifted to blonde hair and a talented tongue and relaxing on the couch feeling safe. She swore that the clock ticked slower in those day dreaming moments just to spite her. Eventually she would snap out of it and start to get work done again. She was still more productive than anyone else on the floor even when she was distracted for a good portion of the day.

But then the clock struck noon and she shut the file she had just finished and grabbed her purse and then she was gone before anyone could blink. She breathed out a sigh of relief. It was probably completely ridiculous that she felt so giddy about this woman, but in life she had so few things to truly be excited about so she wasn't really going to chastise herself for it.

Emma was already waiting for her in the atrium. Regina walked up to her with a wide smile.

"Well, well, Miss White, starting lunch early, are we?" Regina teased.

Emma just shrugged. "That's the plus side of having people working under me, I can cut out a little early and no one notices."

"That's a blatant abuse of power, you know."

Emma grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the exit. "Yeah, well, with a girlfriend like mine do you think anyone would blame me?"

Regina laughed and squeezed Emma's hand. "Well, I have this great girlfriend as well, but I seem to be able to stick to the rules nonetheless."

Emma stuck out her tongue and changed the subject. "Churros though."

"You're going to grow fat from how much you eat."

Emma patted her flat stomach. "Nah, not with how much I work out."

Regina shot her a skeptical look.

"What? What do you think I do on nights I'm not with you? I go to the gym, because if I can't get my work out with a beautiful woman I might as well go hit the shit out of some assholes who think that a little woman can't possibly beat them. Then I go for a nice long run afterwards. It's quite relaxing. Keeps me from showing up at your apartment and demanding sex after I've gone and gotten you all hot and bothered with my text messages."

Regina just shook her head and butted her shoulder against Emma's. "You've done that a few times anyway, not that I mind at all."

"What can I say? It doesn't always work. Not when I know what you look like under those stuffy business clothes."

Regina snorted. "Yes, dear." She tugged them into the line at the empanada truck. "What fighting style are you fond of while kicking ass?"

"You seriously just actually cursed? That's a thing? You do that?"

"Of course, dear, just not inside the confines of the place I work."

"Where's the fun in that?" Emma shot a mischievous smile at the other woman. "I don't know, usually it's just mixed martial arts. I have dabbled in just about every fighting style though. It's fascinating to me how many different ways there are to fight in the world."

Regina ran her tongue across the front of her teeth, considering. "Hmm, want to make a bet, Miss White?"

"A bet about what?"

"I bet I can beat the shit out of you and your mixed martial arts tonight after work."

Emma scoffed. "Oh please, you're little bitty ass thinks you can take down this?" Emma flexed her rather large biceps.

"I'm quite a bit stronger than I look. Remember when I had you pinned up against the wall last week without so much as batting an eye?"

The blonde cocked her head. "Ok, so that was impressive. But you, little Miss Ivy League, know how to fight?"

"Well, why don't you find out tonight?"

"Ok, fine, what do you say we bet?"

"Loser buys the other's lunch for a week."

"I've got a better idea. Loser has to do whatever the winner says in the bedroom for a week."

Regina's face broke out into a slow smirk. "My, my, what a way to raise the stakes. It's a bet."

"Good. Because your ass is totally going down." Emma leaned forward so she was whispering in Regina's ear. "And then I'm tying you down to the bed and fucking you until you forget your own name."

A shiver ran down Regina's spine at the image. God, did that sound wonderful. She considered not even trying just so that outcome would play out. But then a better idea popped into her mind. She held Emma in place and whispered back in her ear.

"Oh no, dear, it's going to be me who's fucking that pretty little ass of yours until you scream my name so loud the neighbors call the cops."

Emma pulled back with wide eyes.

"Next!" the food truck guy called.

Regina just smirked at Emma once before turning around and ordering their lunch. For the rest of lunch Emma kept sending Regina little looks like she couldn't believe the other woman had said something so entirely filthy. There was a tiny bit of conflict in there as well. Regina figured the other woman had never let anyone near her ass, but oh was she going to change that. The only problem was how to take Emma down without hurting her too badly. That would certainly put a cramp in their plans. She wasn't exactly trained in finesse unless she was killing someone. She would figure something out.

On their way back into the building Regina pulled Emma into a stand of trees along the way and kissed her completely senseless. Regina pulled back with a huge smile on her face.

"That should hold me over for now, dear, but don't be late meeting me after work. I want our little skirmish to be over as soon as possible so your ass can literally be mine."

And with that she turned and walked back to work leaving a stunned Emma in the trees looking after her.

Regina was leaning against her car by the time Emma made her way into the employee parking lot. She smiled at the woman and beckoned her over. Emma walked over looking her up and down like she still couldn't believe she was real.

"How was the rest of your day of work, dear?" Regina asked once Emma was in earshot.

"Uh, um, a day of work I guess?" Emma ran her hands through her hair.

"You didn't pay a lick of attention, did you?"

"Would you after that little bet we had?"

Regina laughed. "Maybe, maybe not. I'm very good at compartmentalizing when I choose to be."

"Right, no totally don't think you would be able to when your partner tells you they want to fuck you in the ass. Let me tell you, Regina, that's never really been a thing of mine, but right now I'm so fucking turned on by that image I don't even know what the hell is going on."

Regina lifted a hand and cupped Emma's face. The blonde leaned into her hand and sighed.

"That was the point, dear." She dropped her hand. "So my gym is not against rather intense fights. Since both of us profess to be skilled fighters I figured such a place would be ideal."

Emma shrugged. "Sure. I usually just work out at an MMA place and it's not like the guys there give a shit as long as they're getting in some practice. But whatever place you have in mind probably would have less men catcalling."

Regina hummed her agreement. "Yes, it's usually rather quiet. Most of the members prefer to keep to themselves."

"Cool."

"I have some clothes there that you should fit into if you don't have a change of clothes on you."

"Yeah, that's handy. I didn't exactly think of going to the gym today. In fact I thought after work would involve no clothes at all, but seeing as how that's still an option for later I'm not too put out."

Regina leaned out and kissed Emma's cheek. "Oh no, dear, it'll be you who's putting out later." Regina stepped back and unlocked her car. "Follow me there in your little death trap?"

Emma just shook her head and jogged over to her Bug. Regina started her car and revved it once, knowing what the sound did to Emma. She'd confessed partly under the influence of a few too many beers that it turned her on more than it should. Oh, this fight was going to be so easy if Emma was turned on so much that her brain stopped working.

She peeled out of the parking lot, making sure Emma was behind her in her little VW Bug. There was no way it could keep up with her Benz if she really pushed it and she really didn't want a ticket, so she kept it as low key as possible while still showing off just a little. God, being with Emma these last few weeks had been so freeing. She couldn't remember the last time she actually had fun like this, had any fun at all, really, but here she was.

They pulled into the parking lot of the gym fifteen minutes later. Emma pulled her Bug beside her Benz and got out.

"You think your car is so cool. Well mine had a movie made about it!" Emma stuck out her tongue.

Regina laughed. "While that may be true, dear, Herbie can't go zero to sixty in under four seconds."

"Yeah, well, movies are cooler."

Regina walked up to Emma and put her arms around Emma's neck. "Don't pretend that it wouldn't turn you on to be behind the wheel of my car going just as fast as your heart desired."

Emma bit her lip. "It would turn me on more to have you fucking me on your couch while we watched one of the Herbie movies."

Regina leaned up and kissed the other woman. "Duly noted, darling, but after this you'll be mine to command in the bedroom, and couch fucking isn't on my agenda."

"Maybe when I win I should just fuck you in my car and see who wins then. I do have much more leg room."

"That's about the only thing it has more of."

Emma huffed. Regina laughed and pulled back.

"We're not going to determine who gets to do what to whom if we stand out here, darling. Even if I do quite like being in your arms I want my prize."

Regina pulled back and started to walk in.

"If I'm the prize you have me anyway."

Regina smiled back at Emma. "Good, now stop delaying the inevitable dear."

Emma followed behind her into the gym. She led them to the locker room and shoved a set of workout clothes at Emma before pulling out a set for herself. She'd need to restock her supply the next time she came. They changed quickly and Regina led them out to the mats.

Emma bounced on the balls of her feet, testing out the spring of the mats below her. Regina took a deep breath and centered herself. She blocked out the thoughts of her love for Emma. If she wanted to win she couldn't have such a weakness. But she didn't tune out everything like she normally would. She didn't want to hurt Emma, only to win.

"So what do we count as a win, dear?" Regina asked calmly, voice a little flatter than normal.

"Pinned for a three count?" Emma asked, stretching out her arms.

"Works for me. You'll be on your back before you can blink."

"Oh please, no one needs your double entendres."

Regina smirked at her. "You like when I talk dirty. I have proof."

Emma just glared at her and dropped her arms to her sides. "Well then, your majesty, why don't we get this party started?"

"Let's."

They stood still for a long moment and then Emma was suddenly halfway across the mat barreling straight for Regina. Regina smiled, she just knew that Emma was going to be an act first think later kind of fighter. It fit her personality so well. And then Regina was moving, dodging out of the way of Emma easily.

Emma turned towards her and smiled, lifting her chin up in silent admiration. Regina took two quick steps forward and dropped to the ground, sweeping her leg out in a wide arc. Emma jumped back away from her and then it was Regina's turn to smile at her. They'd both made their first move. Now was when the fight truly began.

Regina sprung up from the floor straight at Emma. Emma caught her halfway and spun, deflecting her easily. She felt more than saw Emma's kick at her back. She dropped into a crouch and felt Emma's leg sail over her head. She grabbed it and twisted. Emma unbalanced and fell to the mat with a grunt. Regina was on her in a second, trying to pin her, but Emma threw her off easily.

They both sprung up and sized each other up again, waiting for the next move. Emma wasn't so quick to dart forward now, eyes sweeping up and down Regina carefully, sizing her up more accurately. Regina just blinked and cocked an eyebrow. They weren't going to get anywhere just staring at each other. She was moving before she even realized it, dropping forward and charging right under the guard that Emma had up. Her shoulder hit her clean in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Regina smiled and Emma gasped like fish as she threw her to the floor. She pinned Emma's arms to her side and was positioning herself so Emma's legs couldn't move when Emma kicked up.

Regina grunted in pain and Emma used the opening to buck her off. The brunette was on her feet again quickly facing Emma, wincing only a little as her groin smarted. It wasn't bad, she could ignore it.

Emma was coming after her before she could focus completely on the fight again. Regina dodged sloppily and Emma's fist landed square in her solar plexus. The wind left her and she damned herself for feeling so smug about knocking the breath out of Emma earlier. Surely this was divine retribution.

She managed to bring up her fist and hit Emma square in the shoulder, twisting her just enough so her take down was easy enough to dodge, even in Regina's slightly impaired state. Emma was right back at her again swinging with the other fist. Regina dropped, still trying to pull enough air into her to function properly. She needed some distance and she needed it now.

Regina surged forward, pushing Emma away with all her might, sending the other woman flailing backwards. The brunette jumped backwards and started to breathe deeply, the coughing starting to subside finally. By the time Emma had recovered her balance she was ready to go again, running forward with a smile on her face.

Emma took a swing again and it was becoming painfully obvious to Regina that the woman favored right hooks above all else. Regina took a step forward and rammed her knee up into the other woman's side. The sound of pain that Emma made was satisfying. But soon Emma was moving again, throwing an elbow at her face. Regina ducked and stepped back out of her reach again.

She spun around, swinging up her leg and roundhouse kicking Emma in the same side she just kneed. Emma went down on one knee with a groan. Regina quickly tackled her to the floor once more confident that this time she finally had Emma. Two hard blows to the same area should make her foggy enough to finally succumb.

But just as she was about to pin Emma's arms she was facing towards the ceiling, her wrists in a vice grip and her legs clamped to the floor. Regina glared up at Emma and squirmed but her hold didn't break. She shot the blonde an apologetic look before headbutting her hard enough to make the other woman's eyes water. She managed to free one of her legs and pushed up on Emma, freeing the rest of her body.

Emma staggered to her feet, holding her nose, but Regina didn't see any blood so she didn't feel _too_ guilty. After all, the woman basically asked for this fight. Emma came at her again and got inside her guard and suddenly Regina's grappling with the woman who is much stronger than she looks, but so is Regina. They stood at a stalemate for a long moment before Emma just let go and stepped out of the way, letting Regina fly forward.

She caught balance just as Emma aimed another kick at her back. This one she isn't quick enough to avoid and it lands in the center of her back, sending her sprawling. Emma is on her in a second, pressing her into a mat and damn if Regina isn't a little bit turned on by the weight on top of her even if they're in the middle of a fight. She bucked up and Emma is pretty easily dislodged, not having had time to truly pin her.

She grabbed for Emma and rolled on top of her, the blonde's shoulders in a death grip so hard she's sure she'll probably leave bruises. Regina really didn't care, though, she wanted to win before this escalated anymore and her survival instincts kicked in and she hurt Emma. The woman below her is more skilled than Regina ever thought possible and she idly wondered why, but that is a thought for another time as Emma bucked up into her and tried like hell to get her off.

Emma ended up throwing Regina off, but before Regina can get up Regina is pinned to the ground again. The two of them rolled around the floor for a few long moments, both trying to pin the other but not quite being able to do it, before the other bucked them off. Emma smiled down at Regina as they rolled off the mats. Regina glared back and tried to turn them to where they'd come back onto the mats again. There was no need for one of them to be hurt unnecessarily.

By the time Regina finally, finally, pinned Emma under her and counted out loud to three the two of them are sweaty, flushed, and out of breathe. Emma just stared up at Regina with a look of awe on her face, still pinned under the other woman.

"God damn woman, that was impressive," Emma huffed out between breaths.

Regina smiled. "I try dear." She let go of Emma's hands but still kept her legs pinned to the floor.

Emma just reached up and pulled Regina down to her, kissing what little breath out of her that there was. When they drew apart Regina was panting harder than before, grinning like a goof ball.

"I fucking love you, you know that?" Emma looked a little shocked at the words that just flew out of her mouth but within a second was smiling genuinely.

Regina just kissed the woman below her again long and hard trying to infuse everything she felt in that moment.

"I love you too, you idiot."

Emma laughed and pushed at her chest, wiggling out from under the other woman. "So much romance, Regina Mills."

"Says the woman that just confessed her love to me while pinned to the floor of a gym after a rather intense fight."

Emma titled her head slightly forward in acknowledgement. "Fair enough." She hopped up and helped Regina to her feet. "Now if I remember correctly you just won a bet." She stepped closer to Regina. "And let me tell you I'm so fucking turned on right now I can't fucking wait to be fucking in your bed."

Regina reached down and squeezed Emma's ass. "Your ass is mine, White, in more ways than one." She winked and flounced off towards the locker room, Emma muttering and following behind her.

"I had to love this one didn't I, this absolutely insane fucking perfect woman. Of course I did."

Regina smiled all the way back home.


	10. 10: Consequences of the Kama Sutra

Emma groaned and rolled over, arms curling around Regina effortlessly. The other woman snuggled back into her and Emma sighed. She was so damn sore from last night. She'd been sore at least once a week since she lost that fight to Regina two months ago. The woman had a hell of an imagination on her and God damn if she didn't use it to fuck Emma in the strangest positions. Like she could really complain since the orgasms were amazing, but damn she had packed heels to wear to work today and she was seriously going to regret that later.

She stretched a little and groaned loudly. She felt more than heard Regina's chuckles, her body all smushed against the other woman.

"A little sore, darling?"

"Like you don't fucking know I am already. What the hell was that last position? I was a god damn pretzel."

"You weren't complaining at the time dear. In fact I remember quite clearly that you said something along the lines of that having been the hardest you've ever come in your life."

Emma huffed. "Yeah, well, sorry that this is my first time working through the karma sutra."

Regina flipped over in Emma's arms and smiled at her. "Who says that we were working through the karma sutra? That's so for beginners, darling."

"Do I even want to know?" Emma cocked an eyebrow.

Regina just laughed and wiggled back out of bed. She stood up and stretched languidly. Emma's mouth went dry at the sight of the naked woman in front of her. God, how in the world had she gotten so damn lucky.

"Probably not." She walked in the bathroom. "I'll make breakfast since you got us up early with your groaning."

Emma sighed as her mouth watered. Regina was the best damn cook ever. She stretched one more time and groaned before getting up and following the other woman. Regina was already in the shower humming quietly to herself. Emma smiled fondly and set about brushing her teeth.

When she was done she leaned against the marble counter, shivering slightly at the cold stone pressing against her flesh.

"You can't really make fun of me for being sore, Regina. The day after I tied you up and fucked you until you passed out you whined like a little bitch."

"I did no such thing, Miss White."

Emma snorted. "So maybe it wasn't whining by anyone else's standards, but it was totally whining by Regina Mills standards. You kept glaring at me every time your muscles twinged and went on and on about how it was my fault. Just because you didn't say it in a whiny tone doesn't mean it wasn't whining."

She heard Regina huff loudly but the other woman didn't say any more.

"Besides, I remember you saying something along the lines of that was the hardest you've ever come in your life."

The water shut off and Regina slid the shower door back. She was glaring full stop and Emma. The look should have made her cower in fear but she just smiled back at the woman she loved.

"You think you're so clever throwing my own words right back at me, don't you?"

Emma grabbed Regina's towel and handed it to her, stealing a quick kiss from the other woman. "Definitely."

Regina rolled her eyes and stepped out of the shower. She slapped Emma on the ass as she walked to the sinks. Emma squeaked quietly.

"Whatever, darling, take a shower. We wouldn't want such a dirty girl going into work."

"Yeah, I'm the dirty girl." Emma shook her head and turned on the shower, adjusting it so it didn't scald her skin off.

When she emerged, squeaky clean Regina was already working on her makeup, standing in a matching red lace bra and panty set. Emma walked over and traced the waistband of the panties, resting her chin on Regina's shoulder. The warm water had helped her muscles immensely.

"However am I to concentrate on work when I know you're wearing something like this under your clothes?" Emma kissed Regina's neck.

"By keeping it in your pants for eight hours."

"But where is the fun in that?"

"The fun comes after work."

Emma sighed. "As long as this time you take it gently on me. Otherwise tomorrow I'll be unable to move."

"I make no promises." She bumped Emma off her shoulder. "Now go get ready, you're dripping water on me."

Emma laughed. "Whatever you say, your majesty."

She walked into the kitchen when she was done and Regina was stirring around a few vegetables in a pan. Emma inhaled deeply eyes fluttering shut. It smelled like heaven. She went and flopped down in her normal seat, throwing her heels by the table. There was no way she was putting those one before she had to. The warm water had helped, but not that much. She was still going to have a time of it today. Idly she wondered if anyone would notice if she walked around without shoes.

Regina poured eggs over the vegetable mixture and stood back for a few minutes. When she deemed it ready she slipped the pan into the oven and turned to Emma.

"Get the juice? This will be done in another couple minutes."

Emma nodded and walked to the fridge, grabbing out cherry juice and orange juice. She walked over to the glass cabinets and grabbed out two glasses and poured. By the time she was sitting again, Regina was plating the frittata and handing it to Emma. Emma smiled widely.

"Thanks, babe."

Regina cocked an eyebrow at the pet name, but said nothing else. Emma took that as a tiny victory. The woman sort of hated to be called anything other than her name. She had totally taken it upon herself to find a pet name that the woman didn't hate. Maybe she was onto something.

"Would you like to riding again this weekend?" Regina asked, eyes lighting up at the prospect.

Emma smiled at her. She had learned to live with the horses just for the fact that it made Regina so happy. The woman had started to teach her a few more things that she hadn't picked up during her escape and she was surprised she wasn't so bad at the riding thing. Or getting along with horses, but then Regina was right, Atlas was a giant baby.

"Sure, that sounds cool."

"Great, I'll call to set it up."

Emma stuffed a bite of frittata in her mouth. "Then I owe you two dates. I still haven't figured out what I want to do after the amusement park trip. I don't know what I can do to keep up the awesome level."

Regina just shot a smile at her. "You don't have to do anything, darling, just so long as you're there it's awesome."

"Aw, look who's getting mushy on me."

Regina threw a napkin at her. "I'm doing no such thing." She stood up with her empty plate and downed the last of her cherry juice, walking over to the sink.

Emma followed her, chewing the last of her breakfast. She rinsed off both of their plates and threw them in the dish washer. "Mushy McMushington."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Shut up and get your things. We'll be late for work if you dawdle."

"Like hell we will. You're always five minutes early."

"And on time is late."

Emma shook her head and went to grab her bag. She walked back out to the kitchen and slipped into her heels, wincing slightly as her muscles voiced their protest. She felt Regina's eyes on her, appraising.

She turned around. "What do you say to another boring day at work?" Emma headed towards the door.

"Please dear, like you have a more boring job than I do."

Emma shrugged. "Eh." She took a deep breath looking at the stairs down to the ground floor. Oh this was going to be interesting.

She felt Regina's hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you change shoes if those are irritating your muscles?"

Emma shrugged. "It was what I packed to wear today."

Regina frowned. "Well then, why don't I help you?" She offered her arm.

With Regina's help the stairs weren't too bad. She kissed the other woman lightly before stepping back.

"Lunch at the normal time?" she asked.

Regina nodded. "See you then, darling."

"Bye." She walked towards her Bug, still feeling Regina's eyes on her.

Emma forced herself not to limp as she made her way to their normal lunch spot. It was getting a little chilly to eat outside regularly, they were going to have to find someplace else near work to camp out for lunch in the coming weeks. Regina was already sitting under their favorite tree at the picnic table they'd claimed as their own. She was looking Emma up and down carefully and Emma got the impression that the woman wasn't fooled for a moment by her forced easy gate.

The blonde scowled. She'd been through so much worse than this and managed to power through it no problem, but a few strained muscles and a pair of heels were putting her out of commission. She was going soft being in the States for so long. When this assignment was over she was going to have quite a lot of fun getting back into the swing of things overseas.

She swallowed at that thought and looked at Regina. Except she really didn't want to back overseas now. She had a reason to stay here now unlike any other time in her life. But that wasn't really her free choice, if they wanted her to go she would have to with no complaints or she'd be putting Regina's life in danger and maybe her own. Maybe they'd be sympathetic to a transfer to training others instead of on active duty, but she doubted it.

So she straightened her spine that much more and ignored the fact that now her back was absolutely throbbing from the heels and strained muscles and strutted forward.

"You're hurting more than you were this morning," was the first thing that Regina said to her.

"No, I'm fine. I popped a couple of aspirin and I'm fine."

Regina leveled her with a skeptical look.

"Really, I'm fine."

A cocked eyebrow met her statement.

She caved. She could totally stand hours of torture, but of course she caved to the woman she loved. Maybe she really was going soft.

"Alright, so maybe my back hurts now along with everything else. But I'm fine."

"That is a lie, Emma White, and you know it." Regina's look softened. "You have enough time left in our lunch hour to go back to your place and grab a different pair of shoes."

Emma waved off the suggestion. "I'll be fine, Regina, really. I've been through a lot worse than this. I'll just go home pop a couple more aspirin and lie around with a heating pad on my back and I'll be fine."

"Just because you've been through worse doesn't mean that you should just power through when you have the option to do otherwise. You have to take care of yourself, darling."

Regina dug around in her purse for a few seconds, pulling out her phone. She scrolled through her contacts and hit the call button on one of them. Emma just looked on, confused. What in the world was the other woman doing?

"Nia? Hi, it's Regina Mills. I was wondering if you had any openings today? My girlfriend has done a number on her back and she's too stubborn to do anything about it."

Emma scoffed. She was going to do something about it. Aspirin and a heating pad were doing something about it.

"Mhm, six works just great. I'll just tell her to give my name. Thanks, Nia. Bye."

Regina hit the end button on her cellphone and looked up at Emma with a smug smile on her face.

"And now you have an appointment with a massage therapist after work. Then you can go home and put a heating pad on it and take some aspirin and that will actually qualify as taking care of yourself."

Emma huffed. "Whatever, Regina, you don't need to baby me."

Regina reached out and grabbed her hand. "I don't need to, but I want to. I don't want you in pain, darling."

Emma's bad mood dissipated at that. "Alright, alright, where is this place?"

Regina tapped out a quick text message and hit send. A second later Emma pulled up the message to see an address displayed.

"Efficient, aren't you?"

Regina laughed once. "You know I am, darling."

"I'll go, but next time you even look like you're remotely getting sick you have to let me baby you and not whine about it."

"I suppose that's an amicable deal."

"Good, now let's get something to eat, I'm starving."

Regina stood up and helped Emma to their feet as they went off in search of food.

Emma sat on her couch later, sipping a beer, a heating pad nestled in her lower back, warming her nicely. So Regina had been right, the massage had been great and she felt a hundred times better, but she wasn't about to admit that to the woman. She'd be too damn smug about it. She'd already be smug when she saw Emma tomorrow morning before work and saw she was walking right again.

So Emma just sat on her couch and let the TV numb her brain. She idly wondered when the pizza she ordered would be there. Might as well take advantage of her weakened state to indulge in some junk food, after all.

Emma jumped up when she heard a key slide home in the lock instead of the doorbell. But then there was the familiar tap of heels on the hardwood of the entryway and she relaxed again. What the hell was Regina doing here? She'd told the other woman to go home and that she would see her tomorrow when she was feeling better.

"Emma?"

"Living room," she called back.

Regina appeared in the doorway and flicked on the light. Emma flinched a little as her eyes adjusted. "Really, dear? Sitting in the dark like a hobo?"

"What, I didn't want to get up. I would've turned it on when the pizza got here."

Regina looked at her. "Because junk food is what you need when you're hurt."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, then why the hell not?"

"Mmm, well I had a feeling you were going to do something like this so I brought over chicken stir fry."

Emma's eyes widened. "The one you make with sesame?"

"Yes, darling."

"Fuck the pizza then."

Regina smiled. "That's what I thought." She turned around and disappeared towards the kitchen.

Emma stood up slowly, still not trusting her newly healed muscles. The doorbell rang and Emma scowled at it. What in the world was she going to do with the pizza now? Late night snack she supposed. She went and quickly paid the teenage boy for the pizza and walked into the kitchen.

Regina cocked an eyebrow at the box in her hand.

"What, it was too late to cancel the order." Emma threw it on the kitchen island.

Regina already had two plates with perfectly dished out portions of the stir fry on it. Emma sat down and stuffed a forkful in her mouth moaning quietly.

"I fell in love with the perfect woman."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Yes, darling, just because I can cook totally means I'm perfect."

"Totally other reasons why you're perfect. The good cooking just adds to it. You're beautiful, smart, kind and caring, you know me scarily well, you're funny, and god damn are you good in bed."

"You were on such a romantic roll, and then you just ruined it." Regina took a sip of water.

"What, sex is romantic." Emma grinned at her girlfriend.

Regina flicked her napkin at Emma. "You know exactly what I mean."

Emma reached out and grabbed Regina's hand. "Seriously, Regina, I love you. You're perfect for more reasons than I can name. All I want to do is spend the rest of my life with you."

"Now who's getting mushy?" Regina's soft smile belied the snarky comment.

"What can I say, Mushy McMushington, you bring it out in me."

Regina bit her lip, thinking something over. "When I was home I cleaned out a side of my closet so you can put your things there. That way we don't have a repeat of today in the future. Frankly, as much as we stay with the other it's a little ridiculous to keep carting overnight bags around."

Emma's smile lit up the room. "You really mean it? You want me to keep some of my stuff there?"

Regina nodded. "I do. Don't think I haven't noticed the complete set of your toiletries already sitting in my bathroom."

"Right back at you, your majesty."

Regina laughed once. "Well, I do have quite a few."

Emma stood with her cleaned plate. "Well, why don't I return the favor and clean out a side of my closet for you?"

Regina looked up at her with shining eyes. "I'd like that."

Emma leaned down and kissed Regina hard for a few seconds. "Good. I'll do that while you clean up?"

"Sounds like a good deal."

"Great!" Emma set her plate in the sink. "I think my leather jackets are just going to love the company of your don't-fuck-with-me power suits."

Regina snorted. "I'm sure they will."

Emma shot Regina one last smile before walking to her room and starting to sort her clothing.


	11. 11: Domestic Bliss

Regina yawned and flopped down on Emma's couch dramatically. She was more than exhausted after a day of work after little sleep. Though she couldn't much complain about the little sleep she'd gotten the night before. She was ever so glad that she'd let Emma tie her up again and fuck her into oblivion like she had promised a few months back. Ever since she had let Emma do it the first time it had become a fairly regular thing. It didn't even matter than she was almost completely helpless tied up as she was during their sessions. She felt so entirely _safe_ with Emma that it didn't matter. There were no flashbacks of any of the other times she'd been tied up; her only thoughts were about Emma's lips trailing up and down her form and hoping that they would go where she wanted them.

Emma came in with their boxes of Chinese takeout and moved Regina's sprawled legs so she could sit down. Regina smiled as the other woman promptly put her legs on her lap once she was settled. She sighed contently and let her eyes flutter shut.

"Don't go to sleep on me yet, pillow princess."

Regina's eyes snapped open and she glared at her. "I am _not_ a pillow princess and you damn well know it."

Emma's eyes danced merrily. "Uh huh, couldn't tell that last night."

"Please," Regina scoffed. "We both know you came at least twice even if it wasn't by my hand. And I gladly would have returned the favor but someone fucked me until I passed out."

Emma shrugged. "What can I say? You look absolutely gorgeous when you've been fucked past sanity."

"Mmm, so do you. Especially when you beg and beg to come."

Emma threw a fortune cookie at her. "Lucky I love you."

Regina pulled her legs off of Emma's lap and sat up, setting the fortune cookie aside for later. She grabbed her container of lo mien and a pair of chopsticks and leaned against Emma.

"Yes, well, I love you too." She pecked Emma on the cheek.

Emma grabbed her own sesame chicken and dug in, entranced by her favorite TV show. Regina didn't quite get why she loved the show so much, it wasn't anything special. The women were poorly written props for the men and the plot was absolutely ridiculous and riddled with plot holes, but she sat with Emma every week and watched it with her anyway. She just sat quietly eating her lo mien and tried not to roll her eyes every time one of the characters said something too cliché to be believed. The things she did for the other woman.

She set her half-finished box of lo mien aside halfway through the show and leaned her head against Emma. Her eyes slipped closed as the noise from the TV became background noise. This was just so comfortable. It warmed her heart that she had finally found something like this even though she wasn't sure how she had. This wasn't for people in her line of profession. They all knew that. They all accepted it. And yet here she was.

A kiss to her temple startled her out of her drowsy state.

Emma laughed softly in her ear. "No need to look for a fire there, Regina. The show's over. Let's go to bed. We can sleep in tomorrow to make up for the fact I kept you up so late last night."

Regina nodded and yawned again. She started to clean up the mess they had made on Emma's coffee table but Emma hip checked her out of the way.

"Go get ready for bed. I got this."

Regina shot her a grateful smile and kissed the other woman before heading off to their bedroom. She quickly pulled on a pair of Emma's sweats and a ratty t-shirt before climbing into bed. It was much too cold outside to deal with her normal nightwear. Besides, Emma's clothes just seemed so much more comfortable.

Emma came in a few minutes later and slipped into bed. Regina immediately scooted back against the other woman as her arms came around her. She sighed and relaxed into the warm body behind her.

"Night, Regina," Emma whispered in her ear.

"Night, Emma," she mumbled, not fully conscious anymore now she was laying down.

"I love you."

Regina tried to say it back but it was no more than just a jumble of half formed words. She was already asleep by the time Emma smiled and pressed a light kiss to her t-shirt covered shoulder.

Regina woke to light streaming in the window and an empty bed. She frowned and reached out for Emma's side of the bed but it was barely warm anymore. The woman must have left a while ago. She wanted to cuddle some more now that she was awake and not leave their bed until hunger drove them out.

Her ears perked up as she heard rustling in the kitchen. Then again, maybe hunger had already driven Emma from bed. She sat up and stretched. There was still hope for cuddling later after they ate. It was Saturday after all, there was no real need to be anything other than a lazy lump on a log. Though maybe later she could convince Emma to go on a run with her, after the cuddling of course. She needed to work off the salt from the Chinese food last night.

She took in a deep breath and stood up. Regina made her way to the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She regretted the decision to forgo socks when she hit the title of the kitchen. She scurried over to the breakfast table and sat down, pulling her legs up on the chair.

Emma smiled up at her from the crepes she was making. "Morning sleepyhead."

"It's nine on a Saturday. I'm hardly sleeping in."

"For you, oh 'I get up at eight a.m. on the weekends instead of seven' it is."

She rolled her eyes. "I've done that only a few times. I like my sleep just as much as you do, even if I have less of a penchant to fall asleep in odd places. Remember the park bench?"

"What? I was really tired! You try getting up at four a.m. and then working the whole day _and_ taking your girlfriend out for dinner and see just how exhausted you are."

Regina chuckled. "Fortunately, dear, I don't have to. I don't have to install software on computers to make sure employees are being the most efficient while working."

"Yeah, well, thank your lucky stars for that."

"I do, I do."

Emma slid the cooked crepe out of the pan onto a stack she had going. "Go ahead and grab whatever you want. I did the fruit earlier. It's in the fridge if you want to pull it out."

Regina stood, wincing again at the cold tile set about grabbing the rest of the things they needed for breakfast. She smiled at the peeled mangoes that Emma had included. It was more comforting than she ever could have imagined having someone know her favorite fruit. She glanced at the blonde woman making yet another crepe. Emma knew her favorite everything really. She smiled at the cherries already stemmed and pitted in another container, Emma's favorite. Regina was confident she knew the same amount of information about Emma as well. It was strange knowing so much about a person without having gotten the information through deception and careful watching. The information was freely given. It made it sweeter somehow.

Just as she had set everything on the table, Emma came with the plate of crepes and sat down after kissing Regina on the cheek.

"Thanks, babe."

Regina glared at her. She really did hate that nickname, but she found it less reprehensible than the others Emma had tried earlier in their relationship so she stayed quiet. The _last_ thing she wanted was to be called something ridiculous like cupcake again. Whoever thought that was an acceptable pet name for their significant other was sorely mistaken.

They settled in to eat. Emma's foot came to rest on the bottom of her chair. She smiled down at the offending appendage. The woman really couldn't stand to be any farther apart from Regina than she had to be at any given moment. She unfolded her legs so she could drop one and trace Emma's legs with her toes. The other woman squirmed a bit at the tickling sensation. Regina smirked and kept doing it.

"Damn it woman, I'm trying to eat," Emma looked up at her trying to keep a straight, serious face, but failing. The corners of her mouth kept twitching up into a smile.

"Well, darling, if you didn't put your leg in a prime position for such things then perhaps I wouldn't be tempted."

Emma threw her napkin at the other woman. Regina dodged easily and picked the piece of paper off the floor and threw it right back. Emma caught it and tucked it back in her lap again.

"And you say I'm insufferable one."

"You're the one who tried to hide around corners and scare me all the time."

"Because that one time you squealed like a little girl was hilarious. So what if I want to repeat that?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Good luck ever getting that reaction from me again. That was a fluke."

"Uh huh." Emma shot her a skeptical look.

Regina sighed. It really had been a fluke. She had been too preoccupied with the problem of reporting in to her handler with Emma in the apartment to notice the other woman coming up behind her to tickle her sides. The squeal had more to do with the fact that Emma had grabbed her in a very ticklish spot than anything else. Emma had no idea how close she had come to being dropped that night. Regina was infinitely glad she had resisted her instincts and just turned around and smacked Emma instead of breaking her neck.

"Would you like for me to try and make you squeak like a little mouse again?"

"Oh, come on, that was once! I really just don't like bats."

"Big scary Emma White is scared of bats," she taunted.

Emma shot her a glare. "Oh like you aren't afraid of anything."

"Not animals. They're just living on this earth same as we are."

Emma huffed and shoved a bite of crepe in her mouth. "Sure, they aren't out to kill us at all."

"No, darling, that's other humans. They do that quite nicely without the animals help."

Emma shot her an odd look but when back to eating her breakfast. They finished up their meals, legs still in the same tangled position under the table. Regina was always so awed at just how easy this all was. She had always thought domesticity would bother her. It wasn't the world she was built and trained for. But here she was, with her girlfriend eating breakfast on a Saturday like she wasn't a trained assassin. It was what she had longed for as a teenager. It was what she had relegated to dream status when she finally grew up. And yet it was.

She helped Emma clean up and then she grabbed her and dragged the other woman back to the bedroom. Emma followed her willingly with a smile on her face.

"Someone is eager."

"You got up too early. I wanted at least an hour of lazy cuddling before we got out of bed and I'm going to have it."

"Lazy cuddling, eh?"

Regina looked over her shoulder, just refraining from rolling her eyes at the leer she found on Emma's face.

"Yes, just lazy cuddling. Nothing else."

"Where's the fun in that?" she heard the pout in Emma's voice.

"I swear to god I am in love with a teenaged boy," Regina grumbled.

Emma grabbed her ass. "What? I can't help it when my girlfriend looks like a sex goddess."

She turned around in the doorway to their room. Regina leaned up and kissed Emma with the blonde's hand still firmly cupping her ass. She could feel Emma's smirk through the kiss. The woman totally thought she had won.

Regina pulled back. "We have tonight to do whatever you want to me. Now I want to cuddle." She yanked the other woman towards the bed.

"Tease."

Regina just sank down on the bed and looked up expectantly at Emma. Emma sighed and got under the covers. Regina made short work of wiggling her way into Emma's embrace. She sank down and relaxed fully almost instantly. Emma's hands started to card through her hair gently and she sighed. She squeezed Emma hard. She really loved this casual intimacy.

They stayed silent for a long while, Emma's hands still moving, their breathing slow and even, just basking in the other's presence. Regina felt herself drifting, not quite awake or asleep. Her mind wandered forming fantastical images of strange creatures, dragons and unicorns, and then suddenly those would be gone and replaced by images of Emma with a little grey around her temples looking up at her with loving green eyes.

"Do you ever think about the future?" Emma asked her, drawing her out of her daze.

Regina blinked open her eyes and looked up at the other woman. Emma was staring at the ceiling, her hand had stopped in Regina's hair. Regina took a deep breath.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, I mean, the future with us, I guess. I mean everyone kinda thinks about what's going to happen in the future, but I guess what I'm trying to get at is do you see me there?"

Regina smiled at the other woman, seeing the image of Emma with greying hair smiling at her that her brain had just shown her in her drowsy state.

"Of course I do, Emma." She squeezed the woman under her. "I see you old and greying in my mind and you look just as beautiful as you do today. I'm the happiest I've been in…well I'm quite positive I'm the happiest I've ever been really. Why wouldn't I want that to continue?"

Underneath her Emma breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I do too."

Regina smiled warmly and poked Emma in the side. "Were you really worried that I didn't see us as anything more than temporary?"

Emma shrugged and blushed lightly. "I dunno. I mean we haven't been together that long. You could have been on a totally different page than I was."

"If I was on a different page I don't think I would've said I love you, Emma. I don't love easily. I wasn't sure I was capable of it for a long time. But I love you. And I want to spend as long as I can with you." Even if that wasn't as long as she really wanted, Regina tacked on in her mind. Any day her country could decide that she was of more use elsewhere and send her back into the field. But until then she was going to spend every moment she could with the woman who was looking at her with such love and care.

"Ok." She sighed. "Ok. I, um, I'm not exactly used to anyone actually loving me as much as I love them." She swallowed hard. "One of the many pluses of foster care, I guess."

Regina leaned her head back and placed a gentle kiss on Emma's neck. Emma hadn't talked much about her childhood, but each mention showed that it wasn't a happy time. She was glad Emma trusted her enough to tell her such things, even if they made her heart ache. Emma deserved the parents that she had always imagined for herself, loving, kind, funny, accepting. Not the kind that trained their daughter in espionage just because it would bring their family status within the country.

"Don't worry, darling, I love you more than I ever thought was possible. There's no need to worry."

Emma's arms came around her and squeezed. "I love you, Regina."

"And I you."

They lapsed into silence for a while. Regina took to tracing random patterns on the patch of skin revealed by Emma's tank top riding up. Emma took to stroking her hair again. The soft smile on Regina's face felt like it would split her head in half. She wasn't sure that it got better than this. Certainly it could be better if she wasn't undercover, but that couldn't be changed. Everything that could be helped was wonderful as it was.

"So, what do you imagine as our future?" Regina asked sometime later. Her eyes met Emma, open and honest.

A small smile graced Emma's lips. "Well, first I find a new job so I don't have to spend a single second away from you. Then I think we date for a few years and you still manage to show my ass up on dates every single time and I have no idea how, but I don't really care because you're fabulous and I love you. Of course we move in together somewhere in there. Maybe our own little cute home, maybe just move into mine, because let's face it I like your apartment and all, but I love the space of a house. Kitty probably makes his home on one of the couches that you hate and scratches the fuck out of it because you guys are like of the same mind sometimes."

Regina laughed and started to poke Emma in the ribs and the other woman squirmed and laughed under her, but continued.

"And then eventually I get my shit together and buy a ring for you. It's probably going to take me forever to find one that's worthy of you because it needs to be just as beautiful as you and that's going to be damn hard to find. And expensive. Let's face it you have expensive tastes." Emma started to tickle Regina under her armpits and Regina laughed and convulsed, attacking Emma's sides that much harder in retaliation.

"I'll propose and I'll probably fuck up the wording and everything because you make me feel like an idiot sometimes and it'll probably be magnified about fifteen hundred times when I'm nervous about what you'll say. But of course you say yes and we get married in a small little ceremony and you'll look wonderful in a wedding dress and I'll wear a tux because I like dresses, but wedding dresses just aren't my speed. And then we live happily ever after, after that because you're perfect and I can't imagine ever being unhappy with you."

Regina sat up and kissed the woman hard. Emma's arms came up around her as both of them melted into the kiss. It was soft and loving, passionate but in a subdued way. It never got heated, but expressed every emotion that couldn't be put into words.

"I like that future," Regina said as she drew back, forehead still resting on Emma's.

"Yeah?" Emma asked, eyes fluttering open again.

"Yeah."

"I'm glad."

"I'm glad I found you. Or more accurately your annoying self stumbled into my life. Thank god for government red tape."

Emma laughed under her. "I think that's the only time that'll ever be said."

"Mmm, yes well, there's a first time for everything." She leaned in to kiss Emma again before settling back down, head on Emma's chest, listening to her breath.

Her mind wandered again, thinking of everything that Emma had said. What if her government left her here, forever the mole, never again in the field? What if she could have everything that Emma just painted a beautiful picture of? She was nearing the end of her field life span in terms of effectiveness. Anyone past forty wasn't considered as good. They weren't as fast as their younger counterparts. They couldn't take as much abuse anymore. If anyone lived that long by their forties they were put into sleeper jobs or trained the next generation. She had five more years until she hit that mark. What if they just decided to keep her here for the rest of her life? She was already completely integrated. If they left her here uninterrupted she might climb in the ranks and have access to even more information.

She practically salivated over the possibility. Maybe she was done with everything finally. Or as done as she ever could get. God, she hoped so. She glanced up at Emma and prayed to every god she knew that that was the case.

"Do you ever think about kids in your little future scenario?" Regina didn't know where that had come from, but all she could think of now was a little girl with Emma's blonde curls and bright smile and her heart melted.

Emma was silent for a long moment. "I've never thought about that. I guess since I never really had parents I never thought I could be one." She looked down at Regina. "But you? You would be a great mother. And a little girl with your looks would be the cutest thing ever."

"You don't give yourself any credit, Emma. You would be a wonderful mother. You're kind and caring and you would dote on a child like they're the be all end all. It doesn't matter if you didn't have a mother in your life. You would be wonderful regardless. And you're mistaken, a little girl with your looks would be the cutest thing ever."

Emma's smile was soft and unsure. "You really think so?"

"I know so, Emma."

"You'd really want to have kids with me?"

"Of course. I want to do everything with you, Emma. And if both of us wants children in the future then I will be ecstatic. And if we don't, then I'll still be ecstatic because I'm spending my life with the love of my life and nothing else matters."

Emma tugged her up into another kiss. "God, I love you so much it should probably hurt."

Regina laughed. "I know the feeling, darling." And leaned back in to kiss Emma again, smiling.


	12. 12: Rose Petals Where There Shouldn't Be

"God damn it, Emma, I hate your mattress," Regina cursed.

Emma just turned over and looked at her, eyes half open sleepily. "So it's not your bed. It's perfectly fine. It just isn't made of memory foam so expensive I'd need to save up for like five years to get it."

Regina leveled a glare at her.

Emma sat up and sighed. "If it really bothers you that much I can look for a new one."

Regina mumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said I'd rather just bring my mattress over here and be done with it." Regina didn't look at her, pretending to be highly interested in the carpet.

"But then what would we sleep on while we were at your place?"

This time Regina did look up at her, eyebrow cocked, expression clearly asking if she was really that dense.

"Oh. Oh. Regina Mills, did you just invite yourself to move in with me?" Emma teased, smiling.

Regina blushed and dropped her eyes again. "I did no such thing." She got up off the bed and bustled away to the closet, picking out an outfit for the day.

Emma followed after her, coming up behind the other woman and circling her arms around Regina's waist. She set her chin on Regina's shoulder and kissed the tan neck below her. The blonde waited until she still before whispering in Regina's ear.

"You know we've been together a year. Had sides of the closet cleaned out for each other for seven months. When was the last time we actually spent the whole night apart? I don't remember because it's been at least a couple months. Maybe moving in together isn't such a bad idea."

"Such a romantic proposal, darling."

Emma squeezed Regina closer to her. "Oh, come on, your majesty. Romance isn't our strongest suit. You cleaned out your closet for me because I had a bad day after you fucked me into oblivion. Our last fight I made up to you by taping a picture my face to the punching bag in the garage and letting you have at it and then bandaging your hands when you were done. The time before that you let me drive your car to make up to me. We aren't exactly romantics. We're practical people. And I know that I love you. And I know that you love me. And I definitely know that we want to spend as much time together as possible. And that we want to have a future together. Well, this is just the first step. And if it came from you bitching about my mattress being a piece of shit, so be it. Fuck knows I might just scatter your bed with rose petals and cook you a nice romantic dinner once you've moved in and that can be the romantic aspect of all this."

Regina leaned her head back against Emma. "I do have more of my things here than I do at the apartment anymore."

"Yeah, don't think I haven't noticed that. The shoe rack in the guest bedroom closet was kinda a dead giveaway."

Regina elbowed her gently. "And while this house isn't as close to work I do find I like this neighborhood."

"Yeah, the neighbors are great. Don't call the cops on us when we're in the middle of _very_ good sex."

"And it would be practical to only have one set of bills."

"Damn straight, I don't even want to know the rent you pay on that apartment."

"And kitty would have a yard to wander around in."

"Seriously still don't understand why you named the thing kitty, but whatever. Yeah, I'm sure kitty will like it here too."

"I didn't really name him. I didn't want to get too attached."

Emma shook her head. "Yeah, too attached. Your cat is almost always fighting me for your lap when we're over there."

"You like him too, don't even try to fool me."

Emma sighed and detached herself from Regina. "Maybe. When he isn't watching us have sex."

Regina laughed and started to pull on a set of turquoise lingerie that set off her skin beautifully. "I still can't believe that unnerves you."

"He knows too much, Regina."

"He's a cat."

"He knows too much."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Yes, darling, whatever you say."

Emma slipped into a deep blue button up. "Lucky I love you woman."

Regina stopped buttoning her own shirt to lean over and kiss Emma softly. "Yes, yes I am."

They pulled on the rest of their clothes and started for the kitchen. Emma threw Regina an apple and grabbed herself a yogurt from the fridge. There wasn't much time to eat before they had to be at Langley.

Emma sank down at the breakfast table and looked at Regina. The woman was the only one she knew that could eat an apple in a dignified and neat manner.

"So…"

Regina looked up at her.

"Do you really want to move in?" Emma asked.

Regina swallowed the bite of apple she was chewing. She smirked at Emma. "Well, I suppose."

Emma threw her crumpled up yogurt lid at Regina. "By all means make it sound like a burden."

An apple core went flying across the room and Regina stood up. A second later Emma found her lap full of Regina. She looked up at the other woman and smiled. Regina's arms circled her neck and drew her into a deep kiss. Emma sighed and sank into the kiss, kissing back hard. Her hands fell to Regina's ass, squeezing and kneading the flesh. Regina groaned into her mouth and quickly things spiraled out of control. Regina's hands were tangled in her hair, pulling just enough to send arcs of pleasure through Emma. Her hands slipped around to Regina's front, quickly flicking open the clasp of her pants.

Emma slipped her hand under the other woman's underwear and cupped her. Regina ground into her hand. The amount of wetness already coating her hand should have been a sin. Emma quickly shook that thought aside and made quick, tight circles around Regina's clit. Her fingers faltered just a little as Regina slipped a hand into her own pants and started to stroke her. She was so damn hot in that moment she thought she was going to explode. Breathing through her nose wasn't really providing her enough oxygen anymore but she would be damned if she detached her mouth from Regina's.

She felt the telltale quivering of Regina's thighs. The brunette was close. An intense bolt of pleasure shot through her body. And oh god, she was too. Her hips bucked into Regina's hand. Emma's arm was the only thing that kept Regina firmly on her lap. She doubled her speed and the little whimpers that Regina made into her mouth were delicious.

And then Regina was arching into her, fingers pressing just hard enough to send Emma over the edge with her. She gripped harder onto Regina, riding out her orgasm, twitching spastically. It was truly amazing what Regina could do to her in only a few minutes.

Regina detached her mouth from Emma's as she went slack, slumping onto her shoulder. Emma spasmed a few more times before relaxing. They sat together for a few minutes while their breathing even out. Emma never wanted to leave the other woman's arms.

Regina pulled back. "No burden at all. In fact, it would be my pleasure." She kissed Emma's forehead.

"I love you." Emma leaned up and caught Regina's lips in a softer kiss.

"I love you too." Regina got up and started to fix her outfit. "But I don't love your mattress. That's the first thing we're bringing over."

Emma laughed and stood up, fixing herself as well. They both were going to look more than a little rumpled all day but Emma didn't really care. "Yes you majesty."

"And now we've got fifteen minutes to get to work on time. Double time, Miss White."

Regina strode from the room. Emma just laughed and followed her, smiling for all she was worth.

"Jesus, Regina, if I hadn't slept on this before I would swear it was made out of fucking bricks. Who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to make a mattress so damn heavy."

Regina smiled at her from the doorway. "If you had listened to me and hired movers for a day then you wouldn't be on the floor panting, darling."

"How the hell are you not? You carried it just as much as I did."

"A lady never tells her secrets."

Emma glared up at the other woman who still looked completely put together even though they had just hauled in her insanely heavy mattress from the U-Haul parked in the driveway. She would never know how the other woman managed to do it. She looked like a mess, pony tail falling out, sweat covering her face.

"Well why don't you use your damn secrets to drag my old mattress back outside. We can drop it at Goodwill before we return the U-Haul."

Regina just laughed at her. "Sorry, but even with my secrets it's a two person job. Much too bulky to handle all by my lonesome." She shot Emma the closest look the woman had to puppy dog eyes.

Emma huffed and levered herself off the floor, groaning slightly. Regina _so_ owed her a massage after this. Together they hauled her old mattress out and leaned it against the garage door for later.

"Ok, now that we've moved your mattress in, your majesty, what about the rest of the stuff?" Emma eyed the rather full truck and sighed.

Regina climbed the ramp with ease. She handed Emma a box marked kitchen. Emma did her best not to drop it. It was a lot heavier than it looked.

"Why don't we bring in the small stuff? The larger items we can deal with later. Or perhaps not deal with. I don't have a particular attachment to anything in here. We can go through it together and decide what can stay and what can go to Goodwill. Surely though the end tables can stay. Yours look like they're about to fall over."

Emma snorted but didn't disagree. She'd picked them up at a yard sale the year before on the day she'd been frantically trying to furnish her house. Covers were only good as long as every single detail was in order and hers required a house that actually looked lived in.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure a lot of your stuff is better than mine. But I draw the line at the couch." She shifted the box onto her hip and sighed a little in relief. "I love that thing. You can't convince me that yours is more comfortable."

"No, darling, I wasn't going to try. It's quite comfortable for naps. And it matches the end tables just as well."

"Yeah, well, God bless earth tones."

Regina walked off the truck with her own box. She kissed Emma's cheek and disappeared inside without another word. Emma shifted the box back to her front so she could carry it.

"Lord, the things I do for love," Emma mumbled under her breath as she made her way into the kitchen.

They made good progress through the day and by the time the sun was setting everything looked in order. Regina made one last pass through everything on the U-Haul and looked back to Emma.

"I have everything I want. Did you see anything you wanted, darling?"

Emma shook her head. She had already snagged most of Regina's fancy kitchen gadgets and the lamps with the pretty black and white forest pattern on them. There was nothing else that was shiny.

"Well then." Regina hopped down from the truck. "I think we're officially done." She grabbed Emma around the waist and kissed her hard.

Emma returned the kiss for a few seconds, feeling so very content, before drawling back. "Welcome home, your majesty."

The smile that Regina gave her was worth every single heavy box that she had carried in that day and a thousand more.

"Home. I like the sound of that."

"Good. Because if I have anything to do with it it'll be your home for a long time."

Regina drew her in for another kiss. When they broke apart Regina tucked her head into Emma's neck. Emma kissed the top of the other woman's head and sighed happily.

"Come on, your majesty. Goodwill won't wait forever." She stepped back, grabbing Regina's hand the second they separated. "And the longer the U-Haul is here the more U-Haul lesbian jokes the neighbors can make. I'm not sure I want to give them the satisfaction."

Regina snorted. "They really have no ground to stand on for such jokes."

"Yeah, well, doesn't mean they won't try." She pecked Regina on the cheek and grabbed the U-Haul keys from her pocket. "Meet you at Goodwill?"

Regina nodded. "See you there, darling."

When they returned after dropping off the U-Haul Emma startled back. Everything looked different with all of Regina's stuff mixed with hers. It wasn't a bad different though. It felt more like a home to her now than it ever had before. Regina slipped in behind her and walked into the kitchen. Emma's eyes followed her, a small smile on her face. Maybe it wasn't the house that was home to her. Maybe it was the woman who now lived in her house. She thought that notion would freak her out a little, but all it did was made her feel so very warm.

She followed Regina into the kitchen and wrapped her arms around the other woman's waist. Emma nuzzled into Regina's hair and took a deep breath. The woman smell was so very comforting. She idly wondered now the Regina was living here full time if her house would start to smell like apples and lavender just like the brunette.

Regina laced her hands with Emma's. She leaned back into the blonde and sighed. They stood hugging each other for a long moment.

"I love you. I love you more and more with each passing day and I don't know how that's possible because I already love you so much, but that's just how it is. And maybe one day my heart will literally explode because I love you so much, but I really don't care. I love you Regina Mills." She kissed Regina's neck lightly.

Regina turned in Emma's arms. "I love you too. You're the first person I think I've ever loved. The first person to ever give me a real home. I'll forever be grateful to you. I just hope my love is enough to repay you."

"Always." Emma hugged the smaller woman to her tightly. She needed to talk to her handler about a permanent station here. Like yesterday. There was no way she could leave the Latina woman in her arms alone. Damn the consequences.

Regina pulled back. "Empanadas for dinner?"

"God, yes please."

"That's what I thought you'd say." She pecked Emma on the lips before turning and starting to grab everything she needed. Emma slipped beside her silently started to help, smiling all the while.

Emma glanced up at the clock and bit her lip. She didn't have much time before Regina got home. She looked around her at the perfect disaster that was her kitchen and frowned. Well. Finishing before Regina got home was totally not going to happen. She cursed the fact that they had used the dining room as a dumping ground for boxes of Regina's things to be sorted through at their leisure. If she could use the dining room then all her problems would be solved. It probably would be a little more romantic too, but that was done was done.

She kicked herself into high gear and started scrubbing up. There was still the table cloth to grab and the candles to snatch. Lord, she had so much to do. She stopped for a second before cursing. She hadn't set out the little cheesy banner she had wanted to. She looked around at the dirty pans and out towards the doorway. Eneenie meenie miny….she darted out of the room with soapy hands, drying them on her pants as she went.

Emma jogged into the living room, grabbed the paper banner that she had made earlier. She'd had a lot of free time. Calling off sick was an option for her now. It would be odd if someone came in with a stomach bug to still do their job. She couldn't blow her cover of course. But if she had happened to call off sick so she could cook Regina a big romantic dinner and clean the whole house while scattering rose petals everywhere…well that was beside the point. Normal people played hooky. And she had made sure she hadn't left the house, preparing everything in the days before so she could dance around the house while singing into her dust mop and keep the image up that she was home sick.

She got the banner taped up in the entryway and made her way back into the kitchen just in time for Regina's key to slide home in the door. She cursed under her breath looking at a half washed sauce pan. Well, she wouldn't have really gotten much done anyway and the banner was totally worth it.

She heard Regina's heels make their way up the hallway after a small pause. "Really, dear, Happy Homecoming?"

Emma turned to see the beautiful woman leaning against the doorframe smiling, eyebrow cocked.

"Who doesn't have fond memories of Homecoming, Regina? Overly gropey boys, more booze than a sailor could drink, enough hairspray to put another hole in the ozone, skimpy dresses, a lot of sex in the backseats of cars, a killer hang over the next day, what's not to love."

"Literally almost everything except for the copious amounts of alcohol and skimpy dresses as long as they're on you."

Emma looked down at her own attire. She'd stolen one of Regina's knee length black cocktail dresses, except the height difference and their different body proportions made it more of a just-covers-the-ass dress on her. She leered back up at Regina after running her hands down her frame as innocently as possible.

"Well, I suppose you just might be in luck then because those are the only two things I have."

Regina came forward and grabbed her around the waist. She kissed Emma hard for a second before stepping back.

"What did you make, darling, it smells delicious."

"Beef bourguignon."

"Well, there certainly was a lot of alcohol in that once upon a time." Regina laughed.

"Yes, well." Emma pulled another two bottles of wine out. "Trust me when I say there's still plenty left."

"Aren't you prepared?" Regina walked over and snagged two wine glasses out of the cabinet.

"Not really, if you would have come home thirty minutes from now, totally. But alas, I'm only somewhat prepared with lots of booze."

"I'm quite sorry I've come home at the same time I do every night," Regina deadpanned.

Emma stuck out her tongue. "Hush, I didn't say it was your fault. More my fault for sucking at time management."

"Funny how you can manage time quite effectively at work, but god forbid you're on time in your personal life."

Emma slapped Regina on the butt. "Just for that I'm going to make you work for your dinner. Go get the tablecloth from the linen closet?"

Regina smirked at her before setting down her wine glass and disappearing from the room. Emma went and got the candles, waiting until Regina was done spread out the tablecloth before walking into the room.

"Dish out the food?"

Regina nodded. She set to work lighting the candles and scattering a handful of rose petals over the table. She turned and grabbed both of their wine glasses and placed them down. She smiled as she heard a tiny gasp behind her.

Emma turned around. "Happy Homecoming."

Regina walked over slowly. She set down the bowls with their food and cupped Emma's cheek. She stared into Emma's eyes for a long moment, eyes warm and so very happy, before she stood up on her tippy toes and kissed Emma on the forehead.

"You're an idiot for thinking you're not romantic."

"Considering the dates you come up with I'm pretty sure I'm not an idiot for thinking anything. But I'm really glad you like it so far even though I have crappy time management skills."

Regina shook her head. She turned Emma around and shoved her down in her chair. "No, no more of that. Now enjoy what you've put together."

"Yes ma'am."

Regina rolled her eyes and sat down in her chair. "Goober," she mumbled under her breath.

"Did Regina Mills seriously just use the word goober?"

Regina looked up at her, blank look on her face. "Whatever do you mean, darling."

Emma shot her a skeptical look. "Whatever you say, but we both know the truth."

Regina just smiled and started to eat.

They passed dinner talking about Regina's day at work and just how Emma had played hooky. Last Regina had known leaving the house Emma was running late but would be at work no later than five minutes. Emma was glad of her acting skills for that one. She kept wanting to burst into giggles every time Regina mentioned work. She had snuck out of bed at five in the morning to call in sick and had known she wasn't going in already. If she hadn't been trained to hold an alias completely different from how she was normally would act she would've cracked.

When Regina went to start cleaning up the dishes Emma grabbed her wrists. "Leave them. I have something else to show you."

"Oh?"

Emma just tugged on her wrists again and led her from the room. She heard Regina behind her inhaling now that they were in the hall. She may have gone a little over board with the rose petals, but at least the house smelled fantastic.

"What's that smell?" Regina asked, looking around.

Emma kept quiet and led them to their bedroom. She flung open the door and motioned for Regina to step through. Candles were scattered everywhere, burning in their little glass jars, casting shadows on the wall. The floor and bed were covered in rose petals. Regina gasped and turned to look at Emma. She leaned on the doorframe smiling.

"Oh, Emma, you didn't have to do all this."

Emma stepped in the room and drew Regina into her arms gently. "I didn't, but I wanted to. Plus when I asked you to move in I said I'd cook you a nice romantic dinner and scatter the bed with rose petals. I have to be a woman of my word. You're worth every single thing I could ever give you."

Regina laid her head on Emma's shoulder. "I don't understand how I ended up with someone as perfect as you."

"I ask myself the same thing."

Regina looked up at her and drew her into a gentle kiss. The brunette stepped back, arms latching around Emma so she had to follow. Another step and Regina's knees hit the bed and she sank down. Emma's hands found their way into Regina's hair. Regina's tongue easily parted Emma's lips. She sighed into the kiss. Everything felt so wonderful and warm like a day spent in sunshine.

Then Regina was scooting back on the bed, drawling Emma with her. Emma sunk down on top of the other woman and Regina moaned quietly. She always loved the weight of Emma on top of her. The kiss stayed long and languid, warming them slowly. Regina's hands travelled down her frame, stopping to massage her ass gently. Emma whimpered as she found a particularly large knot in her muscles and worked it out slowly. Her body was relaxing and relaxing until she thought she would end up as no more than a pile of goo on top of Regina.

Her own hands kept pulling and stroking Regina's hair. Regina's little stutters in breathing were the only way she knew that her actions were affecting the other woman. She wanted to feel Regina's skin against hers, but at the same time she didn't want to move. She wanted to stay here kissing Regina lazily until the end of time.

But the throbbing between her thighs was starting to become much more pronounced as Regina's hands kept moving and kneading her flesh. Something was going to have to be done about that soon. She was sure that Regina was in the exact same situation, but they kept kissing and ignored everything else.

Regina's hands slipped under her button up and caressed the skin of her back. Electric little arcs shot through her body as Regina's fingers traced nonsensical designs on her skin. Emma grabbed Regina's shoulders and rolled them so they were facing each other on the bed. Her hands travelled slowly up and down Regina's sides, hooking one of Regina's legs over her own. She needed to be wrapped up in the other woman.

Regina grabbed the hem of Emma's shirt and tugged. Emma got the message enough to sit up just enough to get the thing off. Regina wasted no time in unhooking her bra as well. Her hands were immediately on Emma's breasts as soon as she was laying down again. Emma let out a shaky breath as thumbs stroked her nipples delicately. The warmth within her was turning into something so much hotter.

She slipped the buttons of Regina's shirt out of their little holes and parted the button up, hands tracing the outlines of Regina's abs. Regina giggled and squirmed just slightly away from her hands. Emma smiled into their kiss and let her hands slide elsewhere. She groaned as Regina pinched and rolled her now rock hard nipples. Her breathing sped up significantly.

Emma slid her hands under the waistband of Regina's pants and grabbed her ass. Regina arched into the touch and moaned loudly. She always had been an ass woman in every way. The lacy underwear the brunette was wearing scraped against her palms. She wanted them off. She wanted to feel Regina. She pulled her hands out and buttoned the pants rapidly, shoving them down Regina's legs. Regina kicked them the rest of the way off and they fell off the bed in a rustle of fabric. She pushed the button up off her shoulders, Regina sat up with her so she could throw the piece of clothing away, quickly followed by her bra. And then Regina was gloriously bare in front of her and Emma could breathe just a little easier from the heat that was engulfing her.

She laid back down again and drew Regina closer to her, fingers pressing hard enough into olive skin to leave white marks. Regina was wholly focused on ridding Emma of the pants she had on. Her fingers kept fumbling with the zipper and Emma was a little too far gone on sun kissed skin to really help. The brunette grunted and huffed but eventually just shoved the pants down the hard way, forgoing the zipper.

Her hand was instantly cupping Emma the instant her pants were completely off. Emma gasped and ground down into her hand. The blonde's hand skimmed over miles of skin until she found Regina's mound. She groaned at the sheer amount of wetness that was there. Regina's fingers found her clit and she couldn't think anymore, just feel. Her own fingers started to move, matching the rhythm of Regina's.

They finally broke the kiss to gasp in some much needed air. Moans filled the air, long and loud. Emma's hips twitched involuntarily, trying to get Regina's hand in just the right place. She was already so close it should be embarrassing, but she didn't care. Regina moans were turning her on just as much as the fingers stroking her in just the right way. She spread her legs just a little wider to give Regina more room to move.

Her hand slipped forward and she thrust two fingers into Regina ever so slowly. The velvet heat of Regina's walls gripping her fingers should have been a sin. She started to pull in an out slowly, curling her fingers on every back stroke. Regina thrust herself down onto Emma's hand, her own hand still relentlessly circling Emma's clit.

Emma felt the muscles within her twitch and spasm. Oh she was going to come soon, so soon. She wanted Regina to come with her so badly. She needed it more than she ever needed anything in that moment.

She leaned forward and whispered into Regina's ear. "Come with me."

Regina shuddered and screamed out her release. The sight of a trembling Regina and the vice grip her walls had on her fingers was enough to send Emma hurtling after her. White heat flowed through her for an infinite moment before fading back to sunlight on a summer's day. Emma sighed and flopped down to the bed, catching her breath.

Regina opened her eyes and smiled tiredly at Emma. "I love you."

Emma kissed her on the slightly sweaty forehead. "I love you too."

Regina snuggled further into her arms and they laid silently for a while.

"Emma?" Regina asked.

"Hmm?"

"There are rose petals stuck to me where there shouldn't be rose petals."

Emma burst out laughing. She kept laughing until her belly hurt and Regina was giggling along with her.

"Ok so maybe the rose petals are more perfect in theory than in practice." Emma wiped her watering eyes.

"Maybe." Regina's eyes were warm and happy. "But this was perfect even if," she reached behind her and peeled a rose petal off of her ass. "there are roses closer to me than I ever wanted."

"Hey, at least you'll come out smelling like roses."

Regina slapped her for the bad joke. "I'll choose to ignore that to savor the romantic atmosphere you've set up."

Emma laughed and pulled her closer. "You never said you kept me around for the jokes."

Regina sighed. "No, no I didn't. I keep you around for much more important things."

Emma closed her eyes. "Now who's being romantic."

Regina just smiled into her neck and didn't reply.


	13. 13: The First Shoe

Regina slipped into the guest bedroom, looking over her shoulder to make sure that Emma hadn't woken up when she'd slipped out of bed. It had been the best decision of her life to move in with the other woman, she was so damn happy, but it had caused a slew of complications. She was constantly worried that Emma was going to find her while she was checking in and reporting information that her government needed to know. God only knew what would happen if Emma did walk in. She didn't want to think about it. At best she could lose her, at worst she'd be dead. She couldn't stand either idea.

So she sat down on the guest bed and listened carefully for a minute before opening her laptop and waiting the boot sequence to load. When the screen turned its lighter shade of black she spoke as quietly as possible.

"Operative Evil Queen reporting."

The computer finished loading as she listened again, seeing if her voice had woken Emma down the hall. There was no noise so she breathed a sigh of relief. Everything would be silent now. She was out of the danger zone once more. Regina didn't quite understand how she literally could face death countless times, but this had her more on edge than ever before. How she was going to do this for the rest of her life with Emma she wasn't quite sure. She would find a way, she had to.

She went to click on the drop box link but stopped. A dialog box popped up asking her if she wanted to download a file. Regina looked at the source and her eyes widened. Immediately she clicked download and waited. Her hands started to sweat and she worried her lip as slowly the download bar filled. She hadn't remembered this computer as slow, but this seemed like it was taking ages. Surely it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, continuing orders probably. Her heart stopped beating so frantically at that thought. Yes, everything was fine.

When the file finally completed downloading she double clicked to open it. A text document popped up. She scanned the words written in blocky font. With every grainy word her blood got colder and colder. Everything wasn't fine. It was the complete opposite of fine. They weren't orders to continue as she had been. Or they were in a way, she saw as she reached the end of the document. They wanted her to steal a digital file from the CIA mainframe, the most protected area of the building, in a week's time. She only had a two hours window to get the file before it moved elsewhere and there was no telling when it would be back.

She felt like she couldn't breathe. This was the kind of mission that got people killed. One wrong move and she would be dead. People laid low for years after missions like this if they survived. But her country wanted her to stay here after she got them the file. She was a dead woman if she so much as left a skin cell behind.

How was she supposed to plan something like this in a week? These operations took months, _years_ of planning to get right. There were support teams and back up and people with skills that she didn't possess to help. She had to do it all on her own. Without Emma knowing.

What if she ran, took Emma with her and just ran and ran and ran until her government couldn't find her anymore? But what kind of life was that? It wasn't one she wanted and surely wasn't one she wanted for Emma. She wanted her to have a normal happy life. And her government would find them eventually. They always did. She had been the swift silent death of more than a few rogue agents. It didn't matter where they fled, everyone could be found eventually.

She was damned if she did and damned if she didn't. Regina didn't know what to do. It was the very definition of a catch-22. God, she had been so foolish to think that she could have a normal life with Emma for the rest of her life. She had never been normal. Her mother had made sure of it. She wanted to cry and curse the world but she knew she couldn't. It would wake Emma and that would elicit too many questions.

So she curled into a ball and watched as the file in front of her slowly self-destructed bit by bit. The file number she needed to obtain was branded on her mind. It didn't matter if they file existed or not. She sat like that for a long time before leveraging herself up again and typing in what she had come to report in the first place. The words flowed out of her without any emotion attached to them. She felt like an empty shell, hollowed out and beaten by the waves into submission.

She shut her laptop when she was done and resisted the urge to throw it against the wall. Regina had never wanted this. Her mother had wanted this. And she had profited from Regina's success back at home. She now had a little army of girls to corrupt just as she had Regina and a prestigious position in the government. Regina ached to hop on the next plane and show her mother just how deadly she had taught her to be, but she couldn't. The woman was still her mother. Even she had limits, and despite how much she wished otherwise, killing her mother was one of them.

She stepped back out into the hallway. Quietly she stowed the laptop in its little hidey hole in the dining room vent and made her way back to their room. She opened the door and watched Emma sleeping for a few long minutes. Regina's heart melted just a little at the serene expression on the blonde's face. She loved her so much.

Regina swallowed. She would plan as carefully as possible so she could return to this happiness, but she had no illusions. This week would be the last week she spent with Emma White, would be the last week she would be happy, probably the last she would be alive.

She walked over to the bed and slipped in, curling up to Emma and holding her tightly. Emma smiled in her sleep and leaned into Regina. Regina was ever so glad that she had actually found this perfect woman, had the opportunity to love and be mostly normal for the first time in her life. That was what she had to think about for the next week. She didn't want to ruin the last few days she got to spend with the blonde by moping around. She would act as normal as she could.

They had had a good run. But all good things come to an end. Regina looked into Emma's face. But Emma, she wouldn't end, Regina would make sure of it.

Emma knocked on the door of the director of the CIA. She had met him only once before, when she had been recruited. Ever since then it had been handler after handler. She couldn't ever be seen too close to the organization for fear of blowing her cover. The deep voice that came through the door instructing her to come in made her feel small and powerless again. She was suddenly eighteen and had just given birth to a kid and in prison.

She swallowed down the feeling. She had been out of prison for years now. The kid she had given up for adoption was happy and healthy with two parents and a dog. Emma wasn't powerless anymore. She knew that, but it was hard to remember as she opened the door and her past came slamming into her.

"Sir? You asked to see me?" Emma asked.

"Yes, I called you here to discuss your efficiency screening of my agency." He gestured at the chairs in front of his desk.

Emma didn't miss that they were strategically lower than the director's office chair. She would have to look up to him to speak. She scowled, she knew an intimidation technique when she saw one.

The blonde opened her mouth to speak but the director held up a hand. He pressed a button on his desk and waited expectantly. When nothing happened for a long moment he nodded.

"Precaution of course, but one can never be too careful when discussing classified business."

"What was it that you wanted to speak about, Director Shepard?"

"You've made little progress in your search, Miss White. You've been through every employee of the bureau and you haven't come up with any suspects for the mole."

"With all due respect, sir, there have been several suspects it's just that none of them panned out with closer scrutiny and surveillance. My team and I are very good, we don't miss anything. We will find whoever is leaking information, you have my word."

"It's come to my attention that you've asked to stay in the states after this mission as a trainer."

Emma nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Why, exactly, would I hire someone to train the next generation of operatives when they can't root out a simple mole in a timely manner?"

"Whoever is leaking the information is a professional, sir. That's the prevailing theory in my team. They aren't just some employee that's being slipped money to supply information. Those people would've have slipped up somehow by now, cracked under the pressure of the interview process, contradicted themselves, used their computers to send information, used any of their email accounts, rookie mistakes, sir. It's been a year and none of those mistakes have been made. Whoever is leaking the information, it goes deeper than that, a foreign operative has infiltrated the CIA."

"And why haven't you caught them then, Miss White, if you've figured that out."

Emma felt the muscles in her back tightening. This man had control over her future with Regina and she had more than a little feeling that he didn't like her. She needed to diffuse this quickly.

"Figuring that out is only the first step. We can't let the operative know we're onto them. They'll disappear into the wind and we won't know anything about what they've sent out. They could do something drastic before vanishing into the ether. We have to prevent that. My team has every resource available to them employed on this operation. We'll find them. No one is perfect, sir."

"And you're sure that you have no…conflicting interests?" He sat forward and steepled his hands.

Emma pulled in a deep breath. She knew she couldn't hide her relationship with Regina from an agency that literally gathered information, but still she hadn't informed them. She had foolishly hoped that this operation would have ended before it became an issue.

She looked up and looked the director in his slate grey eyes. "No, sir, I don't."

He frowned at her for a long moment before rustling around in his desk for a long moment. A file was flopped in front of her a second after he closed the drawers. Emma looked at it and looked back at the director, eyebrow cocked.

"What's this, sir?"

"If you would open it, Miss White, you would see exactly what it is."

Emma grabbed the manila folder and flipped it open. Immediately she recognized Regina's handwriting. She resisted the urge to bite her lip, that was a sign of weakness. She looked closer, it was the form Regina had signed to change her address when they'd moved in together.

She placed the file on the desk again. "I stand by my position, sir. I have no conflict of interest."

"I fail to see where you would get that impression. This is a severe conflict of interest."

"If you don't think that I would want to know if I was living with a traitor to this country you are wrong." She held his gaze steadily to get her point across. "Before I ever became involved with Miss Mills she passed inspection. She never has been a suspect. Her background has been gone over with a fine tooth comb, her communications monitored, her interactions and habits watched, all by someone other than me. She has never once put up a red flag. She lives with me, sir, do you think I'm not capable of rooting out another operative when I live with them twenty-four seven? You know my skills, do you honestly think she could get by me for months if she was the mole?"

He looked her over, expression apprising. "No, Miss White, I do not. But I know love does funny things. If she does turn out to be the mole what will you do?"

A pang shot through Emma. God, that couldn't happen. She closed her eyes for a long second.

"I'll do what my country requires, sir. But she isn't the mole so that is a moot point."

He sat back. "Alright, fair enough, as long as you aren't the one monitoring her in any official capacity nor influencing your team on her behalf."

"Do you think they would be influenced?"

"No, that's why they are on this mission, but the point still stands, Miss White."

Emma nodded.

"That being said, if you want to stay here with your new fling you best find the mole quickly."

"We are working as fast as we can, sir, without arousing suspicion."

"Not fast enough, the Hill wants the leak out yesterday. You have one week, White, or you'll be back in Siberia and a new team will be handling the operation. That is all."

Emma opened her mouth to protest, but shut it. It would only get worse if she should argue, she knew it. So she got up with shaking hands and flushed face and all but stalked from the room. Fucking politician wannabes always thought they knew how to do her job better than she did. She had trained for this, ate, slept, and breathed it for the last fifteen years. God damn it her operative name was feared in the business. No one messed with the White Swan. She shot a glance over her shoulder.

Not even the director of the CIA.

Emma picked up her phone to call Regina just as the other woman called her. She smiled. Sometimes it was like the other woman could read her mind.

"Hey baby." Emma could practically hear the scowl at the pet name, but as always Regina never said anything.

"Hello."

"What's up?" Emma asked, shifting so she could hold the phone between her head and shoulder.

"I just called to say that I was working late and not to wait up for me. There are a few files that are on rush order so they need done today."

"Funny, I was just about to call you and say the same thing. Well, not about the files, but about the staying late. I'm almost done with all of the evaluations so I gotta write up the reports and junk so Uncle Sam and his acolytes will stay happy and continue to hire me in the future."

"Oh, well, how fortuitous."

Emma heard the shuffle of paper in the background. "Yeah." She bit her lip. She had an idea. "Hey, since we're both working late, do you wanna order take out and eat together in one of the lounges?"

"Chinese?"

"I think that can be arranged."

"Then I think that's an agreeable idea."

Emma smiled. "Ok. I'll order it so it gets here at like six thirty or so. Then I'll come rescue you from the horror that is paperwork."

Regina snorted. "Not for long."

"Eh, take what you get."

"I suppose. I'll see you then, Emma."

"See you. Love you."

"Love you too."

Emma tapped the end button on her phone and sat it down. The impending threat wasn't going to make her drop Regina and focus solely on the task at hand. If anything if she only had a week left with Regina she was going to spend as much time with her as possible while still doing everything in her power to find the mole.

With that she dove back into the employee files in front of her. She was starting at the beginning to see if there was _anything_ at all that she could have missed. Scarlet and Mary Margret were all looking through different areas of information that they had gathered, hoping against hope that something would flag when it hadn't before. When they had heard the threat issued to Emma they had set immediately to work. No matter if she was the team leader it wouldn't bode well for them either if they failed.

Emma pulled up the workers on Regina's floor and opened the files of the workers who had thrown up red flags to begin with. They had been cleared under close scrutiny, but what if they had missed something obvious? The people had thrown up red flags for a reason. With luck that reason was connected to the leak.

Oh she so hoped it would. She didn't want to get dropped in Siberia again, and this time she knew it wouldn't be a quick mission. Emma would get dropped there and told to stay until further orders were given, gathering what little information there could be in the middle of an almost barren wasteland. And she really, really, didn't want to leave Regina. She would fight tooth and nail to stay here.

So she set to reading quickly, absorbing as much information as she could in the shortest amount of time possible. True love was supposed to be able to conquer all, and if what she had with Regina wasn't true love then she would be damned. She would find something. She had to.


	14. 14: A Girl Worth Fighting For

Regina walked out to her car in bare feet. Her feet ached, her eyes burned, her back hurt from the God damn cheap chairs they made them sit in, her brain was so fried, all she wanted to do was sleep. Preferably sleep curled up to Emma. She hoped the other woman was home already. Maybe she would have something to eat waiting for her. She hadn't taken the time to eat today. There were five days left and she was nowhere near close to being able to pull off the operation. As it was she only could for sure get to two floors above the mainframe. She wasn't even anywhere near the file she needed to get, let alone getting out.

But she didn't want to think about that right now. She wanted to think about Emma and her beautiful green eyes and strong arms that held her so securely. She wanted to think about how in love she was with the other woman and how she would move heaven and earth for the other woman. That was what she wanted on her mind. Nothing about the operation. Emma wouldn't be implicated in any of the action, she had made sure of it and that was all that really mattered.

She got in her Benz and sped off towards home, the streets empty, speeding her travel greatly. She was home in less than ten minutes instead of the twenty it normally took her to get to work. Her spirits lifted instantly when she saw the yellow Bug in the driveway. Emma was home.

Regina quickly made her way inside to find Emma with a box of pizza on the coffee table, her half with olives still perfectly preserved. She threw off her jacket and heels and sat down next to the other woman, snuggling up to her.

"Welcome home." Emma's arms wrapped around her in an instant. Her voice was slightly muffled. Regina looked up to see Emma gripping a pizza crust in her teeth, smiling at her like a fool.

She grabbed the crust from Emma's mouth and started to eat it rather ravenously. Regina smirked at the shocked expression on Emma's face as she watched her eat what was left of her pizza crust.

"What, dear?" she asked when the bread was gone.

"You just stole my food."

"I did."

"I don't steal your food."

Regina looked at her, eyebrow cocked.

"Ok, so I don't steal your pizza."

Regina reached out for a slice. She took a large bite before smiling at Emma. "That's because you hate olives."

"I'm beginning to think you get olives only to ward other people off of your pizza."

Regina just smiled and didn't say anything.

Emma hit her shoulder lightly. "Oh my god, you do, don't you."

"Whatever are you talking about, darling? I do happen to enjoy olives."

"I think you enjoy keeping people out of your food more."

Regina shrugged one shoulder gently. "How can I help the side effects of some pizza ingredients?"

Emma shot her a skeptical look. "Uh huh, I'm totally on to you, missy."

Regina shook her head and went back to eating her pizza. She felt her muscles relaxing now that she was home with the woman she loved, joking around. Emma handed her an extra beer and she smiled at the woman. The blonde was so good for her, so good to her.

She hoped she would find someone good enough for her after she was gone. Some nice normal girl that doted on her and much as she doted on them. It seemed only fair since Emma had fallen in love with someone like her.

The pizza was finished, leftovers put away. Regina snuggled back into Emma's side, ignoring a show she normally liked in favor of sitting, head on Emma's chest listening to the woman's heart beat strong under her ear. The last of the day's tension leaked away and she found herself drifting off to sleep.

Emma was going to pull her fucking hair out. She really fucking was. They were halfway through the employee list three days out with nothing to prove. Jesus fucking Christ she knew it would be hard to root out the mole, but did it really have to require fucking rocket science? Fuck her last two missions combined had required less effort than this and one of them had involved the assassination of a third world dictator.

She tried to read the file she was on once again, but the words swam in front of her eyes. She couldn't do it anymore. She had been here since six in the morning and it was now…She looked up at clock, Jesus, almost nine at night. She was too damn frustrated for this. She needed sleep and food and Regina. Probably in reverse order.

Emma shoved her chair back so hard it almost toppled over. She scowled at the cheap thing and huffed. Yeah, no she really needed to get out of here. Or to punch something. Maybe both. That punching bag in her garage was looking mighty fine after a nice long hug from Regina. She shot a look at Scarlet and Mary Margret, waved, grabbed her jacket and was out the door before the others could say a word. A frustrated operative was not a good one. They should understand. Emma knew they wouldn't but that was beside the damn point right then.

She strode out to her car, one of the last in the lot. Hell, the janitors were probably gone before her at this point. Fucking director. Fucking high and god damn mighty bastard and his fucking threats. God she could fucking kill him before he even God damn blinked and he thought it was a fucking good idea to threaten her and her perfect life with her girlfriend?

Then again when one had an army of operatives at their beck and call they'd probably felt safe doing just about anything short of jumping off a building. Her hands started to shake. Maybe she should have just stayed in Phoenix all those years ago. At least her life would've been her own if nothing else. But then she wouldn't have met Regina.

She rubbed her hands over her face. God, she really needed the other woman. Emma managed to get her hands to stop shaking long enough to get her keys in the door and then in the ignition. She shot off towards home, only paying attention to traffic laws where she knew the police hid on a regular basis.

But when she got home Regina wasn't there. She groaned. Why wasn't she there? She tried to pull up a picture of the parking lot when she'd walked out. What she could see in her mind didn't have a Mercedes parked anywhere. But the woman wasn't there so maybe her memory wasn't accurate. She started to bang her head off the steering wheel.

Maybe she just needed to go in and start punching the shit out of the bag inside. That would at least occupy her until the other woman got home. She sat up, resolved to do just that when Regina's car pulled into the driveway beside her. Her heart soared and she shot from the car. Emma opened the other woman's door before Regina had even turned the car off. The engine cut just as she climbed into Regina's lap.

Regina grunted at the sudden weight on top of her. Emma looked down into wide brown eyes. She caressed the tan cheek under her hand.

"Hi." She leaned in and kissed Regina hard. Regina returned the kiss with equal vigor. Emma pulled back a minute later.

"What's that smell?" she asked, looking to the passenger's seat. There was a bag of takeout sitting on the floorboard.

"Did you know the place we went on our first date does takeout?" Regina asked.

Emma's attention snapped back to Regina. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Emma started to bounce up and down, but stopped when Regina let out a pained groan. The blonde shot out of the car and off Regina's lap.

"Sorry. Just, bad day and I couldn't exactly wait to see you."

Regina smiled brightly and stepped from the car. She took Emma's hands and kissed the other woman lightly. "I love you."

Emma set her chin on the other woman's shoulder and relaxed into her. "I love you, too."

Regina pulled from the embrace. "Now, what do you say we eat some Columbian food, darling."

"God, that sounds so good you have no idea."

Regina laughed and walked around to the other side of the car, Emma following. "Believe me, dear, I might actually have an idea. This new assignment is far from a walk in the park. I find myself wanting to rip my hair out more often than not." She handed Emma a bag of food and grabbed the rest before shutting and locking her car.

"God, I know, right? I couldn't fucking take it anymore. I needed to come home and just be with you and forget the fact that the CIA even fucking exists for a few hours."

They set the food down and Regina turned to her. She strode over to Emma and wrapped her arms around the blonde's waist. Emma's breath caught at the look in her eyes before she leaned in and kissed her completely senseless. Emma blinked stupidly when Regina pulled back.

"Wow, ok." She blinked some more.

She heard Regina sigh. "Yeah."

They stood there for a few minutes before the smell reminded them that there was food to be eaten. Regina shook herself and set to getting plates while Emma got the food out of the bags and started to open up containers. They sat close together as they ate, arms constantly brushing. Emma relaxed slowly. She still totally needed a go at the punching bag, but God did she feel so much better in Regina's presence. They weren't even really speaking, just sitting and eating and it was still the best thing that had happened to her all day.

When they were done eating, Emma leaned her head on Regina's shoulder and sighed. This was really what home felt like. She had gone her whole life without it to find it in a woman who had irritated the shit out of her at first. Go figure. She placed a gentle kiss on Regina's shoulder and stood.

"I'm going to go beat the literal shit out of the punching bag. I think then I might actually be able to face the reality that I have to go back there tomorrow."

"I think I'll join you. Imagining my boss's face on the bag might prove therapeutic."

God, she literally had found the perfect woman. "You have the best ideas."

"I know, darling." And with that Regina walked out of the room to change.

Tomorrow was the day. She knew she wasn't ready. Her plan almost got her out of the building. Almost. Threading through the basement tunnels of the CIA was where her plan ended. She was going in almost blind down there, but it was the only way that had a chance of her escaping. If she got out alive she was the luckiest bastard in the entire business. If she didn't…well, it wasn't like operatives usually lived as long as she did. She'd had a good run. She'd known love. That was really the only consolation prize to all of this.

She slammed her hands on the desk in front of her. She couldn't do anymore. Regina put her head in her hands. Without blue prints of the basement she had nothing to go on to plan her escape. She was lucky to have figured out where one of the tunnels let out. But getting to that tunnel was another thing entirely. And no matter what she did tonight she was not going to find a way out. Not without throwing up some red flags anyway. Accessing the blue prints would take her all night and that was even if she could get to them. She wasn't a hacker. When she set up an operation that required those skills a hacker was the first person she recruited. But there hadn't been enough time for that.

Regina stood up. Fuck it. If she was going to die tomorrow night she was going to die. She couldn't prevent it. She had her weapons and her instincts and a mostly formed plan. She'd come out of worse situations. She'd unpacked her needles last night and coated each one with her signature poison, undetectable and supremely deadly. Anyone who was on the receiving end of one of them would look like they'd gone to sleep and never woken up. It had gotten her through the most difficult of missions in her life. If anything was going to save her this time that would be it.

Best now was to just go home to Emma and spend one last night with her. They both had been under incredible stress recently. She wished she could help the other woman. Regina hated seeing her with dark bags under her eyes and skin a few shades paler than it should be. The director of the CIA was quite the asshole it seemed. Pity, if she had orders to kill him instead she'd rather enjoy it.

She packed up her stuff and sent a quick text to Emma to see if the woman was home or still in the building somewhere. Regina hoped she was home already in sweats lounging on the couch resting. One last night of cuddling close together while voices droned in the background about what they could buy for $19.99 sounded nice, safe, mundane in a way she never thought she'd love.

Her phone buzzed twice, indicating a new text just as she slid her purse onto her arm.

_Still here. Got a couple of files to go through before I can call it a night._

Regina frowned. Well, that wasn't what she had hoped for but there was still some saving of the last perfect night she'd ever have. **I'll pick up Thai food for us then. I think that one movie you love, Independence Day starts at 1 on one of the 500 channels you deem necessary. We can watch it together while you complain about how hot the food is while shoving another bite in your mouth.**

_God that sounds wonderful. You're a saint. You really are. I love you._

**Love you too, darling. I'll see you at home. Don't overwork yourself.**

Regina dialed the number for their favorite Thai place and ordered their normal food. By the time she'd get across town it would be ready for her to pick up. She thought about seeking Emma out and enticing her home with a few kisses, but that was unprofessional. That, and she didn't know where Emma was right now. Mostly the last one. Because if she was going to die who really cared about professionalism.

Instead, she took the elevator down, got into her car, and went to pick up the Thai food. She pulled in the driveway of their house just as the clock hit twelve thirty. She yawned widely. She needed desperately to be well rested for the next day, but she knew she wasn't going to be. That was ok, she supposed, she'd done missions on nothing more than caffeine pills and adrenaline, but it was always better to be at the top of your game when doing anything remotely dangerous. Breaking and entering into the CIA was so far past remotely dangerous it was laughable.

Regina went inside and set about getting everything ready for Emma's return home. Boxes of Thai food littered the coffee table along with Emma's favorite beer and her own glass of wine. Just as she was done she heard the Bug's distinctive hum get louder and louder until it cut off. Regina smiled and walked to the front door, opening it just as Emma shut the bright yellow car door.

"Hello there, stranger," she said, smiling.

Emma returned her smile, tiredness pulling at the corners of her mouth and eyes. "Hey." The blonde walked straight into Regina's arms.

Regina wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman for a few seconds. "Come on, the food will get cold if we just stand here. There's plenty of time to cuddle on the couch."

Emma nodded into her shoulder and stepped back.

Regina led them down the hall. "Bad day, darling?"

"Yeah. I mean there's good newsin that everything will be over after tomorrow."

Regina sank down on the couch. "I sense a but here."

"But if I don't get everything done like they want I'm probably never going to work anywhere in D.C. again."

The statement hit her in the stomach harder than any person ever had. She tried to breathe but couldn't. Oh. So even if she did survive her life might self-destruct. She couldn't leave D.C. Oh.

"Yeah, I know, right?"

She put down her plate and snuggled into the other woman.

"I mean we'll figure something out, but just…"

Regina kissed her cheek tenderly. "We'll figure something out. I love you too much to let distance get in the way."

Emma smiled weakly at her. "I feel the same way." The blonde picked up her plate and handed it back to her. "But I'm working as hard as I can to make sure that doesn't happen. So, hopefully it isn't even an issue."

"Yes, hopefully." The truth burned in the back of her throat. She wanted to tell Emma about what was happening to her. The fact that she was stuck in a very similar catch-22. But she knew she couldn't. If Emma's government even suspected that she knew anything about her activities they would lock her up without a thought. Where ever she had to go if she didn't get the job done would be better than a prison God knew where.

She took her plate back from Emma. She grabbed her wine glass and held it up. "To idiotic governments wanting the impossible done for them."

Emma clinked her beer bottle against Regina's glass. "I'll totally drink to that."

Regina downed the rest of her wine. She set down the glass and went to picking at her food. She wasn't very hungry anymore. Everything was crashing down at once and her only anchor was just as adrift as she was it seemed. She snuggled into Emma's side and tried to put everything from her mind. Emma was here now. She was safe and loved if only for another day. Everything would be decided tomorrow win or lose.

She set her plate aside and buried herself in Emma. Until then there was blonde hair and pale skin and love and fuck what tomorrow would bring.


	15. 15: The Other Shoe

Emma sat back, looking at her computer screen blankly. That was it. They were done. She had gone through every single CIA employee twice. And there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. This mole was a ghost. Schrodinger's cat. They did and didn't exist.

And God damn if Emma wasn't as impressed by that as she was angry. Come her nine a.m. meeting with the director of the CIA this fucking mole was throwing her under the bus. If she ever discovered who it was she was going to shake their hands and then shoot them. She wondered if it was one of the greats from when she was first starting out. They would be old enough to have such a sleeper position. That rat bastard Rumplestiltskin had stolen so many packages out from under her nose when she was just getting started and to this day she didn't know who they were, only the name and a slew of better luck next time dearie messages. Then again the operative only known as Granny couldn't be counted out either. There was too long a list to really know.

All that there was to know at this point was that she was fucked up a creek without a paddle. By weeks end she would be in God knew where Siberia and she would be damn lucky if she had a cell phone left on her person. She wondered how she was going to explain everything to Regina. Saying she wasn't ever going to work in D.C. again was a lot different than being shipped off to bumfuck Russia to never come back. She would make it back to the states, she was sure, she just didn't know how long that was going to take.

She got up, still looking blankly at the computer screen. Mary Margret and Scarlet had cleared out earlier. They had finished before her, a little less desperate to search every single word for nuance. They had shot her apologetic looks and went off to pack. The two of them were younger. They had time to make up for this blunder that Emma didn't. They didn't have much to lose either.

Emma lashed out and the computer she was working on crashed to the floor. A bit of satisfaction coursed through her. She was already fucked. There wasn't really much else they could do to her now, might as well go out with a bang. She grabbed her bag, stepped over the remains of the computer and strutted from the building. Fuck them all.

She crammed her stuff into the Bug and shot home. They weren't going to take her last night with Regina away from her. What was it you even did with the woman you loved on the last night you were going to see them? Hug them? Make love to them until the sun rose? Just have a normal night? Emma shook her head. Everything sounded too good. This couldn't be the last time she saw Regina for the rest of her life. She would be back. She didn't care who she had to sell her soul to.

Emma turned the Bug off and grabbed her keys. The rest of the stuff in her car didn't matter. She didn't even bother to lock it. What was the point? If it was gone in the morning, it was gone. She wouldn't really need it.

The key slipped home inside the door and she stepped inside. Everything was eerily dark and quiet. Regina's car had been in the drive, so where was the other woman? She closed her eyes and listened carefully. There were a few muffled noises coming from the guest bedroom. She scowled. Why in the world was Regina in there?

Emma padded down the hall and went to open the door. She froze when she heard Regina speaking.

"Operative Evil Queen reporting."

She tried to breathe, but it was like she was underwater, so far underwater that the light was gone. There was no way that she had heard what she just had. Regina wasn't the mole. Regina couldn't be the mole. There was no way.

And the Evil Queen? There was no way. There just wasn't. The Evil Queen was ruthless. Everyone in the business feared her. She took on missions that no one else would and left little alive in her wake. The kind, caring woman that she had fallen in love with wasn't capable of that. Regina screamed at tiny spiders for God's sake, how was she supposed to take out a platoon of soldiers?

Emma opened the door quietly just a crack. Regina was sitting on the bed, back against the wall, looking at a laptop that Emma had never seen. Emma's eyes drifted up to the window behind her. The blinds were cracked enough that she could see outside. In a second Emma was padding back down the hall. She quickly grabbed a step stool and let herself outside. Once the nighttime air hit her she was running. Her heart was beating so much faster than it should have been. There was no way Regina was the Evil Queen. She kept repeating that like a mantra.

She set up the step stool outside the guest room window, faint glow lighting it up. Emma climbed up and peaked down. She could see Regina's screen perfectly and if she squinted she could read what was on it. Emma swallowed hard. Everything was in Spanish. She knew that Regina knew Spanish. She said her parents had taught it to her when she was small growing up in Delaware. But it was what was written that was the problem, not the language.

Emma's stomach was at her feet and kept getting lower with every line she was reading. Regina was typing government secrets into the computer, things she had to have learned from her files at work. How could she have missed it? For all this time she had literally been sleeping with the enemy. She had been closer than anyone and she hadn't known. What kind of fucking spy was she? God damn, maybe she deserved to be thrown into the middle of the wilderness in Siberia. She was of no use to anyone.

She kept reading and reading, every single line that Regina typed. At the end her blood froze. In stark black type was the line "operation to retrieve the file from the mainframe will begin in thirty minutes." The mainframe had to be the CIA's mainframe. She was breaking in and stealing a file. She had to stop her. Regina was going to get herself killed.

But did she really care? As Regina shut her laptop and walked from the room Emma wasn't so damn sure she did. Anger was starting to flow through her veins. The other woman had duped her. The other woman had betrayed her country. Did Regina even love her at all? If she was smart enough to evade the CIA for all this time, throwing suspicion off herself, then she could be smart enough to figure out that Emma herself was a spy. People knew of her in the business, the White Swan. She had her own reputation for getting the job done no matter the cost. Regina could have put two and two together. Maybe she seduced her to keep herself safe.

Emma started to breathe heavily. She needed to get out of here. She had to get back to Langley. This all had to end tonight.

But damn if she didn't wish that didn't. She would rather be on a plane to Siberia right now with a nice mundane girl waiting for her return. The fire flared in her veins and she shot off towards her car. She sped down the street before Regina could see she was home.

Emma needed a plan. She needed a plan to stop Regina. Regina. How had it come to this? She was finally fucking happy and the other woman just had to rip that away from her. She felt angry tears coursing down her cheeks. She wanted to scream and slam her hands on the steering wheel, but she didn't. She kept driving, following more traffic laws than she ever did normally.

A picture of the layout of the CIA popped up in her head. It wasn't the first time that she thanked her lucky stars that she had a photographic memory. The halls were a maze, but quickly her mind traced a path to the basement and mainframe. That would be the way Regina came in, but would she risk coming out the same way? No, that would be stupid. You took the path of least resistance. And to get in that would be the path with all the guard rotations. There wasn't a back entrance to Langley.

But there was a myriad of one way exits. She pulled into the parking lot and shut off the Bug's engine. Which one was the best way out? Her mind traced the halls, but all of them had some sort of surveillance. She focused on the tunnels below the building, only there for maintenance purposes, only accessible through the building, heavily reinforced so it was impossible to dig into them. They weren't guarded heavily, a few cameras that could be easily bypassed if you knew what you were doing. Their only weakness security-wise was that they had to have emergency exits for safety purposes, but the proper precautions had been taken. Nothing but a rather large explosion could get those doors open from the outside. But from the inside they opened easily.

That was the way Regina was going to get out.

Emma unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her badge from her bag. She opened her glove box and pulled up the false bottom. A .45 caliber sat there, gleaming in the dull light. She pulled it out and checked the clip. Everything was in working order. She tucked it in the waistband of her pants and got out of the car.

Regina would be there soon. And she would be waiting.


	16. 16: Sigh No More

Regina took a deep breath as she shut her laptop. This was it. If she came out of this in one piece there was an angel watching over her somehow. Perhaps it would be her father. She shook her head. Now was not the time for such thoughts.

She carefully put her laptop back in its hiding place. The device she had put on it blinked at her almost cheerily. If she wasn't back in twenty-four hours to disarm it, it would fry the hard drive of the computer beyond recognition. Her country's secrets would be safe even if she wasn't.

One more deep breath and she stood, making her way back to their bedroom. She looked over Emma's things strewn across the room despite all of her nagging to get the woman to pick up. She smiled fondly and threw everything into the hamper. If Emma was going to come home and find out she was gone for good at least the room would be neat. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Regina paused. She thought she heard the Bug's engine, but when there was no sound of a slamming car door or keys being thrust into the lock she relaxed again. She was hearing things. Emma was what she wanted more than anything right then. She was imagining things to that end, she was sure of it.

She sighed and started to change. It wouldn't do to break into a place in a pencil skirt and blouse. Instead she pulled on her most comfortable pair of black dress slacks and a black turtleneck with black boots. It was nothing that looked overly suspicious, but it suited her need of free movement and clothing that would blend into the shadows perfectly. She tucked black leather gloves into her pocket for later. It wouldn't do to leave fingerprints behind, but for now they would look too out of place.

With that done she made her way back to the guest room again. She pulled the false bottom she'd constructed out of the bottom most dresser drawer. Her gun with all the extra clips sat waiting for her. She caressed the cool metal gently. Her last resort. Guns were loud and drew attention and a silencer was too bulky to bring with her. She tucked the gun into the waistband of her pants at the small of her back and strapped the extra clips to her legs. A knife slipped into a holder just above the extra clips. The elastic and leather of the sheath dug into her calf pleasantly.

Her eyes fell on the little black leather cuff that was the only thing left. Inside were her needles, swift, silent, and deadly. She slipped on the cuff and blinked. It always felt as if she was suppressing a part of herself when she put the cuff on.

Regina stood. She was ready to go. Her mouth went dry and butterflies filled her stomach. She had never felt this before a mission, but then again this one had so much more riding on it than live or die. When bubbling laughter and soft curves became more important to her than her own life she didn't know, but she didn't regret it in the slightest.

Her car keys were in her hand and she was walking out of the door without really registering what was going on. It was better that way, she thought. If she was all there leaving would hurt so much more no matter how many times she had already said goodbye in one way or another. The door of her Mercedes shut behind her and the engine started with a roar and she was gone, gone, gone. The sinking feeling in her stomach told her she wouldn't be back.

Langley was in front of her much before she thought it should be. The sight of the building snapped her back into her mind. Her heart started to race. It was just another mission. She was the Evil Queen. She could do this. She had accomplished the impossible before.

She drove past the CIA and continued on. It wouldn't do to have her car there if she managed to escape. It needed to be well out of the way so she could get to it and not draw any undue suspicion onto herself. She parked three back alleys away from the one where the tunnel she hoped to escape from let out. Her sense of direction was usually quite good, but being underground was going to throw her, she knew. If she ended up across town she wasn't quite sure what in the world she was going to, but that was the risk of going in without a fully formed plan.

She jogged back towards the CIA at a steady pace, boots hitting the pavement with barely a sound. The badge she had stolen earlier from a coworker who was too enamored with her boobs to notice the fact that she had lifted it, clutched in her hand. It would get her in and down to a floor above the mainframe. From there it got a bit harder.

Langley loomed, lit up brightly in the night. She made her way to one of the back entrances, careful to shield her face from any cameras. She scanned the ID card and the door unlocked with a loud click. The security was less back here, but there was still a guard sitting at a little table reading over a newspaper. She darted forward and kicked him in the head before he could even fully look up.

She drew in a breath. That was the first obstacle down, the easiest of the gamut, but still it gave her a little confidence boost. She hadn't lost her edge being here as a sleeper agent. She ran forward again. Regina had memorized the guards rotation and it was only ten minutes until the next guard came around. She had to be into and out of the mainframe room by then or the lockdown would trap her and then it was game over.

Cameras were everywhere, but cameras she could deal with easily. They all had blind spots and she was more than used to spotting them by now. The next problem would be when she ran into another guard. As fast as she was running she would catch up with one of them soon. She prayed it wasn't before she got to the elevator bank. If she ran into one on this floor it might put her behind.

She sped up to an almost dead sprint. Her footfalls were quiet and she thanked her mother for one fleeting instant that she had beaten her and beaten her until she could run at any speed without making more noise than humanly possible. She turned the corner for the elevator bank just as the guard turned down another hallway. Regina held her breath hoping he hadn't caught her out of the corner of his eye. She let out the breath when a few seconds later she was still alone.

The key card scanned again and the elevator opened. She pressed the button and a few seconds later she was shooting down into the ground. She kept close to the door with her back turned at an angle. The camera would see nothing more than a small figure with brown hair, nothing conclusive, even in the reflection off the metal.

The doors opened again as the elevator chimed. She cursed at it for making such a loud noise, but she was off and around the corner before she could blink. She clenched her fist. Now was the hard part. She had to find someone with a key card that would get her into the mainframe. The head of security was her first choice, but his rounds were varied, never with a pattern, just checking up on his employees. If he wasn't down here then she had to find someone within five minutes.

She stood for a second, caught her breath and walked like she belonged on the floor, still managing to avoid the cameras. It was after hours, not many people were there, but none of them paid attention to her beyond the normal looks she got for being a beautiful woman. She looked them all over, but none of them were anyone she needed. She'd memorized the faces of everyone who had mainframe passes a few days before.

Regina felt the seconds ticking by. Time was running down and she hadn't found anyone she needed. Until she turned the corner and there was the head of security talking with one of his guards amiably. She slipped two needles from her cuff and strode forward. She plastered her biggest smile on her face and swayed her hips more than normal.

"Gentlemen." She nodded to them, smiling. They smiled back, eyes raking her frame. She almost laughed, men were too easy.

She waited a couple steps before tripping and falling to the ground. The men were both by her side in an instant. She jabbed the head guard under the fingernail while accepting the man's hand to help her up. The second needle she jammed into the other guard's thigh on her way up. Within seconds they were gasping and on the ground again. Regina pulled out her needles and slipped the main guard's badge off.

"How considerate of you to keep this warm for me." She smirked down at him and grabbed his hand. She'd need a fingerprint to get in and there was no way she could bring the whole man. The knife she'd brought was in her hand in a second and she sliced off his finger in one quick motion. The poison had paralyzed him enough that he couldn't scream, but she could see the pain in his eyes. She wrapped the finger in a cloth and shot off. He'd be dead before she got back to the elevators.

Keycard in hand again she had five minutes to get to the mainframe, get the file and get into the tunnels. Plenty of time. She jabbed the button for the elevator again and willed the light to flash on.

She hit the next floor running. That file wouldn't be there for much longer and her window of escape was closing. It was time to end this.

Three fast turns later she was face to face with the entrance to the mainframe. A deep breath and she pulled out the finger from the scrap of cloth and pressed it to the scanner at the same time that she held up the badge to the RFID reader. A hiss broke the silence and a keypad was revealed to her. The code was rotating, changed every day, and was twelve digits long. She had three tries before it locked her out and sounded the alarm, but she was nothing if not prepared. Whoever programmed the codes was fond of history. The codes were dates and times of historical events of the U.S., seemingly random to anyone else since they never stayed in the same time period, but not to anyone who broke the code. And if she was right today's code should be the exact time that the first U.S. space shuttle launched.

Regina tapped in the code and held her breath. One second passed, two, and then the keypad lit up green. She was it. The door popped open and Regina was through it without a thought. She pulled up short. The room was a lot bigger than she had pictured, but that was of no consequence. There were a hundred different access points on the mainframe, but she knew the exact location she needed.

Three rows over and two down and she jammed her flashdrive into the port. The screen came to life and Regina was sorting through the files after entering the director's password. The man really should be more careful with his information. The file names didn't make any sense to her. They shouldn't. Her job was to obtain information, nothing else.

Her eyes scanned over everything, taking everything in as quickly as possible. Her heart was starting to pump harder. Her time was running out. She had a minute maybe two until she needed to be out of there. Where was this fucking file?

She double clicked open another zip folder. Three entries down there it was. She drug it over to her flash drive's icon and tapped her foot while it downloaded. Surely there was a faster way to do this. She needed out of here. She was almost free.

The green bar hit the end of the progress bar. She hit eject and ripped the flash drive out. Regina was sprinting now. It was another two halls over before she got to the entrance to the tunnels. She'd be damned if she was going to get locked in here now. Emma was waiting for her. Everything hard was over now; she just had to get out.

Out of the mainframe room, she turned a corner and ran right into the barrel chest of a guard. She had a needle in his heart before he could blink. He was down before he could scream. A tug and the needle was out of his body and back into her cuff. She was running again, heart beating in her ears, breath not coming fast enough. Cameras were everywhere and having to dodge them was slowing her down. God damn it, why the hell did they want her to break into one of the most secure buildings in the world?

She turned another corner. One hall down. One to go. Her muscles were burning, but she started to run faster anyway. There had to be only thirty seconds left before time was up. She could see it. The door to her freedom was right there in front of her. She dodged one more camera and slid to an almost stop. The head of security's badge turned the light green and she was through the door. She vaulted over the railing of the stairs and down to the next landing. The shock went through her entire body but she ran and was over the next railing before the pain could register.

Two flights of stairs later there was another door and she was through it just as the alarm sounded behind her. She let the door close behind her, hearing the lock clang into place. She took a deep breath of dank tunnel air. It took a second before her eyes completely adjusted to the dim yellow light. She was almost there. She looked around, but what way now? Her instinct pulled her right.

She sighed and went with it. Instinct was all she had now, her plan had only led her this far. She started to jog at a good clip, her muscles still protesting. She still had to get out of here before the idiots upstairs got the bright idea to search down here, so she ignored them and pushed a little harder.

Her knees almost gave out when a voice sounds behind her, echoing through the cavernous space.

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Regina froze, not daring to turn around. This couldn't be happening. She was imagining things.

Slow footsteps sounded from behind her. "You know, when I came home I thought, hoped, _prayed_ that what I heard while standing outside the guest bedroom was a mistake. Even after I peeked through the window and saw what you were typing on your laptop some part of me still held out. Because I loved you. I _believed _ in you, that you weren't anything more than what you said you were." The voice laughed and it sent shivers down Regina's spine it was so bitter and twisted so far past what she was used to. "But seeing you here, well, the doubt is kinda gone."

Regina swallowed and turned slowly. Emma was standing there, blonde hair framing her face like an angel and hellfire in her eyes. A hand went to her back and came back with a gun. She flicked the safety off and cocked it in one fluid move, pointing it at Regina. Regina was frozen. She couldn't move, couldn't pull her own weapons, nothing.

"Emma," she croaked out. It was like every molecule of water had been sucked out of the tunnel.

"Yeah." Emma cocked an eyebrow. "Surprise."

"I-I, Emma you've got to understand—"

Emma cut her off. "Fucking save it, Regina. I don't have to understand anything but the fact that you betrayed my country." Her voice broke. "That you betrayed _me_."

"What was I supposed to tell you! That I was a spy? I would have gotten us both killed. And what about you? How are you even down here?"

Emma's fingered tightened imperceptibly on the trigger. She laughed again, but there was no mirth. "Yeah, well, I'm not a fucking efficiency consultant. That's how I'm fucking down here. I was brought in to find the damn mole. Funny how I was living with her for most of the time. God damn, I'm a piece of shit for a spy when I can't even tell I'm fucking living with one after two months and been fucking her for over a year. Fuck, guess I should just give up the White Swan and go to Siberia anyway."

Regina's fists clenched. "White Swan?"

"Yeah, well, we all have our code names in the business, don't we? It's nice to finally meet the Evil Queen."

She sucked in a breath. That name hurt more than it ever had now. She took a step forward but stopped when Emma's finger tightened again.

"Emma, I know you're hurt." She looked down at her feet. "And I know this can't end well, but." She looked back up into Emma's eyes. "It wasn't fake. None of it. I loved you. I still do."

"Bullshit. You knew the whole time who I was, that I was there to sort out the mole."

"I didn't. Consultants come in all the time. I thought you were just a normal girl with infuriating habits and excellent taste in food. I was careful around you as I always am around strangers who come in, but I didn't know."

Emma moved the gun and shot at the ceiling. "Don't you dare fuck with me Regina."

Regina cringed and took a step back. This was worse than anything she could have ever predicted. The only woman she ever loved was going to kill her. Love was weakness after all.

"I'm not."

"Tell me why would I believe you now?" The gun was pointed back at her again.

"I don't know, but I hope you do."

Emma's eyes softened just the slightest bit. Regina closed her eyes and swallowed hard. There was a hint of her Emma in those eyes now.

"Why? That will only make this harder. You're right, this can't end well. You're in this business, you know what would happen. Hell, I got threatened to be dropped in Siberia for not finding the mole. Can you imagine what would happen if they found out I let you go? Fuck, I wish I would've just taken the Siberian banishment. At least then I'd still have you."

Regina grimaced. "I would've ended up dead if I had refused this mission. Banishment isn't on the table, you do what they ask or die." She looked up at Emma and shot her a significant look. "Or they would have made me wish I was dead."

A sob escaped Emma. "You know, this is fucked up, us falling in love with another spy. What are the damn odds?" Emma laughed again, tears running down her face. "It's so fucking stupid. I wanted to fucking marry you. I wanted to have kids with you! God fucking damn it!"

Regina felt tears prick at her eyes. "I know. I wanted all of that, too." She took a deep breath and sent one last prayer up to anyone if they were up there. This was it.

Regina started to walk forward and she never was really sure what happened next. A gunshot echoed out and she collapsed to the floor, trying to pull in a breath. She had never felt so much pain in her life. She pulled back her hands and they were covered in blood. Her blood. She cocked her head, not quite understanding.

Emma rushed up to her, skidding the last bit towards Regina on her knees. "Oh God, Regina. I didn't mean it. Oh god, I didn't mean it." Emma was sobbing full on now. "My finger was still on the trigger and you started moving and I just—" she sobbed again. "I don't even know." She cradled Regina in her arms.

"It-it's ok, Em-Emma." It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Sheer determination got her arms up to circle Emma's neck. She drew the other woman down and kissed her with bloodstained lips.

"No, no, it's not." Emma's tears splashed against her face.

Regina sighed, breath rattling in her chest. She grabbed her wrist and pulled another needle out of her cuff. Emma knew too much about her. Word would get out, her government would come after her and her death would not be quick. God even knew what her own government would do to her for sleeping with the enemy. No, this was the best way, her foggy mind told her.

She stabbed the needle into the back of Emma's neck. "No, i-it's n-not, but i-it will b-be." She started to cough and more blood spurted across her lips.

Emma had gone limp in her arms, but she still saw her eyes watching her. "I'm sorry. B-but it's b-better t-this way. My government…w-would k-kill you."

"I'm…glad…it was…you." Emma managed to force out, fighting the poison.

Regina swallowed hard, the edges of her vision were getting dark. "I love you. I-I'm sorry it t-turned out li-ike thi-is. In another l-life." She smiled. Words were getting too hard now, but she hoped the smile conveyed it all. In another life they would have been perfect. They would have had the two point five kids, the picket fence, the love that lasted until they were old and grey.

Emma's eyes overflowed, dropping little tears like rain onto her skin. Funny, she'd never feel real rain again. It was a funny thing to miss, but she did.

Emma's eyes opened and met Regina's again. She blinked hard. Everything was getting so dark. She wanted to see Emma's eyes for just a second longer. She couldn't quite go yet. The green would be her absolution for every bad deed she'd done, chief among them killing the woman in her arms.

But her eyes slipped closed before she could clear her vision. She was just so tired. Emma would be there when she woke up. Emma was always there. She was convinced the woman would follow her into the afterlife. It would be fine if she just slept for a little bit. Emma would be there when she woke, all curled up in her bed around her at home complaining about kitty hogging the bed. She'd see her eyes in the morning. Yeah, that sounded nice.

And with that her final breath slipped out of her and Regina Mills was no more.


End file.
